Prof. Blase Ur Provides Data Breach Protection Advice on WTTW's Chicago Tonight

Capital One Financial, one of the largest American credit card companies, is the latest company to announce a significant data breach, potentially opening up millions of its customers to fraud. WTTW's Chicago Tonight news show invited Assistant Professor Blase Ur to discuss the incident and what people can do to protect themselves from misuse of their private information. 

“It feels like it's the new normal, it seems like every week there's another data breach,” Ur said. “A lot of the burden is being pushed on to us as consumers…I think it's really hitting on some major systemic issues on how we handle data breaches as a society and as a country.”

In an accompanying article, Ur also shared his tips for protection against future data breaches:

1. Use different passwords everywhere. “If for one data breach your password is revealed, then you’ll be accessible [to hackers] on all these different sites,” Ur said.

2. To better manage your different passwords, use password manager software. “You might think I have a really strong and hard-to-guess password that I’ll use everywhere, but if any company suffers from a data breach … you’re basically toast,” he said.

3. Enable two-factor authentication. “This is the case where you type in your username and password, and then you have to enter a code that comes up on your phone, for instance,” Ur said.

4. Be careful of phishing emails. “Sometimes they’re laughable, like some foreign prince wants to give you money and then you have to pay some processing fees to get this money. But now that all this personal information is being revealed from data breaches, we’ve seen more targeted phishing emails,” Ur says. “I think a big worry is this will become way more targeted in the future. If you get an email about your last vacation, it might just be a scammer.”

5. Think about what kind of information you are sharing with companies. “When you’re sharing information with companies, think about whether they actually need it,” Ur said. “We live in an age where it’s very natural to give companies information to get services, but just be wary. You have to be a little bit rebellious and say, ‘No, I don’t want to give this information.’”

Related News

More UChicago CS stories from this research area.
UChicago CS News

Ph.D. Student Jibang Wu Receives the Stigler Center Ph.D. Dissertation Award for His Work Modeling the Incentive Structures of Reward and Recommendation–Based Systems

Oct 24, 2024
UChicago CS News

Rebecca Willett Receives the SIAM Activity Group on Data Science Career Prize

Oct 23, 2024
UChicago CS News

UChicago CS Researchers Shine at UIST 2024 with Papers, Posters, Workshops and Demonstrations

Oct 10, 2024
UChicago CS News

UChicago Scientists Receive Grant to Expand Global Data Management Platform, Globus

Oct 03, 2024
UChicago CS News

UChicago Researchers Demonstrate the Quantifiable Uniqueness of Former President Donald Trump’s Language Use

Sep 30, 2024
UChicago CS News

Five UChicago CS students named to Siebel Scholars class of 2025

Sep 20, 2024
UChicago CS News

NSF and Simons Foundation launch $20 million National AI Research Institute in Astronomy

Sep 18, 2024
In the News

Data Ecology: A Socio-Technical Approach to Controlling Dataflows

Sep 18, 2024
UChicago CS News

Ph.D. Student Shawn Shan Named MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 and Innovator of the Year

Sep 16, 2024
UChicago CS News

Ben Zhao Named to TIME Magazine’s TIME100 AI List

Sep 05, 2024
UChicago CS News

Ian Foster and Rick Stevens Named to HPCwire’s 35 Legends List

Aug 28, 2024
UChicago CS News

University of Chicago to Develop Software for Effort to Create a National Quantum Virtual Laboratory

Aug 28, 2024
arrow-down-largearrow-left-largearrow-right-large-greyarrow-right-large-yellowarrow-right-largearrow-right-smallbutton-arrowclosedocumentfacebookfacet-arrow-down-whitefacet-arrow-downPage 1CheckedCheckedicon-apple-t5backgroundLayer 1icon-google-t5icon-office365-t5icon-outlook-t5backgroundLayer 1icon-outlookcom-t5backgroundLayer 1icon-yahoo-t5backgroundLayer 1internal-yellowinternalintranetlinkedinlinkoutpauseplaypresentationsearch-bluesearchshareslider-arrow-nextslider-arrow-prevtwittervideoyoutube