No company is safe from data breaches, from food-service behemoths like McDonald’s to e-commerce merchants like Shopify. You doubtless participate in the global economy in some way, too, so you aren't safe either. Data breaches now happen so often that they rarely make the regular news cycle, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous. A data breach gives cybercriminals the chance to uncover your private information and use it for nefarious purposes, such as identity theft.
Few people know more about the volume and frequency of data breaches around the world than Troy Hunt, a Microsoft Regional Director and the man behind HaveIBeenPwned, a free online security resource. His website lists data breaches as they are reported and allows visitors to check if their information has appeared in any of them. I spoke to Hunt about data breaches over the phone, and he offered a lot of information about keeping data private.