Expert Says To Remain Vigilant In Light Of Data Breaches
(CBS) -- It feels like déjà vu as word of another major retailer hacked, this time Jewel Osco.
You might want to roll your eyes and throw your hands up in frustration, but CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker explains why that's the last thing you should do.
The data breach at Jewel is the second in the last two months to go along with ones at Home Depot, Jimmy John's, Target, Nieman Marcus and Michael's.
Every new breach brings the same warning to monitor your accounts, change your usernames, change your passwords
"If you lost your keys once at your house and you lost them again you have to go through that security," said said Craig Spiezle, executive director of the Online Trust Alliance, which promotes security for business and consumers.
Especially if you're like so many consumers and use your email address as your username and the same password for numerous accounts.
"The challenge is your username may have been compromised at retailer A but if you're using that same combination at retailer B the criminals may have access to your information without you knowing it," said Spiezle.
Eventually, says Spiezle, we won't have a choice as more and more websites force consumers to reset passwords every 90 days "and forcing a unique name so it's not your name, your dog's name, it's a combination of characters for security," he said.
It's a daunting task to change everything, but experts say you have to make sure you update any site, that's connected to a credit card. You can skip those that only provide news and information.