You already know it’s important to keep a tight hold of your personal data. And amid an ongoing slew of customer information breaches, you can’t take data privacy for granted.

In a case from December 2021, a hacker group accessed the personal details of over three million users on FlexBooker. They then sold the data on hacker forums, granting access to countless online criminals who presumably used it for nefarious purposes or sold it on to others with similar motives.

Of all your personal data, your Social Security Number (SSN) is probably the most valuable to a thief. It grants access to many different services and is the key to unlocking further identifying information about you.

Here, we’ll lay out some scenarios of what a fraudster could do if they got ahold of your SSN. We’ll also talk about some simple ways you can prevent that from happening.