Over the past several years there has been an upsurge of data breaches occurring with many businesses as well as individuals. the most recent occurrence was with Yahoo who services millions of people's email accounts. These accounts were compromised by hackers in 2014, nearly 2 years ago, and prompted executives to issue a statement just last week that Yahoo users must quickly change their passwords in order to protect their sensitive data. But this was too little, too late. Why did Yahoo wait two years before reporting this breach? The damage has already been done and hackers have the information they need to commit even more identity theft crimes and cost tax payers billions of dollars. Why are big name companies like Yahoo, Home Depot, Target and others consistently falling into this trap? With identity theft on the rise, data security should be one of the top issues that companies should face head on.

So why isn't more being done to combat this issue? Perhaps some of it can be attributed to negligence and perhaps a lack of knowledge as well. Hackers can attack anyone at anytime and if you are not familiar with their techniques, you would never know until it's too late. Here are some techniques that hackers can use to access your personal information.

1. Phishing

This occurs when hackers create websites that are nearly exact replicas of commercial websites in order to get users to enter their information to access their site. They will commonly ask users to login or to email them their login information in order to capture their information. Some things to watch out for are misspellings in the URL or on other places in the site. Sometimes hackers will create an extra extension on the site that will seem out of place. For example Bank of America's website is www.bankofamerica.com not www.bankofamerica.cz or .info. Another red flag to consider is this-why would a company that you signed up with ask you to send that information to them again? Most companies would never have the time to do that. You would be better off just creating another account,

2. Spoofing

Hackers play on a user's curiosity to pull this one off. Typically users will be sent an email by an unfamiliar source asking them either open an attachment or click on a link in an email. No other information is provided in the email. Legitimate emails are not vague. A legitimate company would identify themselves or their representative by name or other contact information and they typically would not send anything to you without prior knowledge.

3. Downloading Free Software

This is also a ploy that hackers use to gain access. Usually this occurs with a pop-up message or by visiting a site that offers download of the free software. A common pop-up will inform the user that their computer is infected and that they would need to click on a button to remove the infection. Antivirus software does not work in this fashion and 99% of the time users have no idea that their computers have been infected. What really happens here is that programs like spyware and viruses are downloaded onto your system. These programs are capable of tracking and recording your passwords, all the websites you visit, your credit card information and your computer's IP address which hackers can access remotely without your knowledge.

4. Using Open Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi is extremely convenient but can also present a problem if proper security measures aren't taken. Open Wi-Fi allows users to connect to the Internet without having to login. Savvy hackers can easily access your computer through this open network since there is nothing stopping them. The best bet is just to use secure Wi-Fi. You'll thank yourself later.