Protect your information after a data breach

Sooner or later, we will all have our private information exposed, says Greg McBride, financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

That's certainly the new reality for many Americans whose personal information was revealed in data breaches in the past two weeks.

Dating site Ashley Madison, drugstore CVS and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management are among the latest to report that private information was hacked.

But just because your Social Security number or  bank account is exposed doesn't doom you to be a victim of identity theft, says McBride. If you protect yourself, your information won't be worth as much in the wrong hands.

1.  Call your bank

If a company doesn't have your updated address, you may not be notified your data was leaked, says Michael Bruemmer from the data breach response team at credit monitor Experian.

If you suspect your information has been exposed, it's worth calling your local bank branch, says Ted Peters, a banking executive who testified before Congress on cybersecurity. Ask for the security department, then ask for IT or a cyber fraud expert, Peters says. Put everyone in your bank on notice, verbally and in writing.

To be on the safe side, change your account numbers, too.

2. Practice good digital hygiene 

In a perfect world, you'd never bank online — and if you did, it would be on a dedicated, secure computer just for banking (no kids allowed), that spent most of the day turned off. But if that's not possible, there are things you can do to stay safe.

Avoid public Wi-Fi, says Ken Westin, cybersecurity expert for Tripwire. If you have no choice, you can buy access to services like privateinternetaccess.com that route your online activities through an encrypted pathway.

Type the domain for your bank into your browser, rather than clicking links in emails, Westin says.  Be sure you see a green or gold lock next to the "https://." If the lock is broken or you just see "http://," you aren't on a secure connection, and you should wait to access your bank.

Finally, use a password manager like LastPass or 1Password to make sure all your passwords are different, Westin says. Change them at least every 90 days.

3. Never stop being vigilant

Despite companies offering complimentary credit monitoring after a data breach, many customers never sign up, Bruemmer says.

"If you have the offer, you need to sign up," he said. "If you have to wait to detect something on your own, the identity thieves have the opportunity to use your information for longer."

Once it's out there, your information could be bought or sold anytime in the future, McBride says, so you should never stop checking credit alerts.

"People will spend five hours per day to check their Facebook feed, but it would only take five minutes to check your bank account," McBride says. "Don’t wait for the statement to come at the end of the month."

Bruemmer suggests money-tracking app  BillGuard to keep look out for suspicious purchases.

"Live with the assumption of a breach," says Westin, who changes his credit card number every six months.  "There are a lot of benefits from online banking, but the price of capitalism is vigilance."