Think of all the credit and debit card swiping that happens at a big box store. It can't compare with the transactions at a mom and pop store. But the data danger is still the same.
Just days after one of the world’s largest data brokers, Equifax, suffered a major data breach, a family-owned Burlington, Vermont chocolate shop suffered a data loss of their own.
“I was personally affected by the Equifax breach so then when we had incidents of our own, we knew to take it seriously," says Allyson Meyers of Lake Champlain Chocolates.
Hackers stole names, addresses, email addresses, and credit card information from customers who had purchased chocolates online. And the numbers between the Equifax and Lake Champlain Chocolates couldn’t be more different - about 148 million to a mere 90 customers -- but a Consumer Reports investigation finds that in breaches both big and small -- the consequences are much the same.
“Your credit card information is your credit card information. It doesn’t matter if it came from the hardware store down the street or if it came from a really big data broker operation, the information is still the same, ” says Bobby Richter of Consumer Reports.
Lake Champlain Chocolates reacted quickly and reported the incident to Vermont’s attorney general. But other small businesses might not be that vigilant.
So how can you protect yourself from breaches big or small? “If you have any accounts you use maybe less often, or not at all any more that are pretty old, you might want to go back and check those, or monitor them on some sort of routine basis.