One of the greatest fears we all have in the wake of a data breach is having our identity stolen. Nefarious parties gather our personal information exposed in the breach, approach financial institutions and then impersonate us to do stuff like this:

So I recently somewhat had my identity stolen, someone used my driver's license to open about 10 different bank accounts across 6 Banks.

This was the message I received from a friend of mine just last week, and he was in a real mess. The bad guys had gotten so far into his real-life identity that not only were there a bunch of bank accounts now in his name, he was even having trouble proving who he was. Which makes sense when you think about it: once someone has the data attributes you use to verify your identity, how does a bank know that you're the real you? Like I said, it was a real mess, and he only found out about it after a lot of damage had already been done.

Which brings me to identity protection and, more specifically, Aura. I've known the folks there for years, and they were a sponsor of this blog for half a dozen weeks back in 2023. Their remit is to protect people from precisely the sort of outcomes my friend above suffered. They pride themselves on responding to fraud events super fast, providing 24/7 US-based customer support (that alone makes a massive difference), and even providing $1M American dollars in identity theft insurance. The US emphasis there is because, like Truyu who we recently onboarded to help Aussies, Aura is a geo-specific service and in this case, is there to help our friends in the US. As such, if you're coming to HIBP from that part of the world you'll see them appear in your dashboard and on the breach-specific pages:

Aura is there right alongside 1Password; two different companies offering two of the most valuable services to help protect you both before and after a data breach. And if you "Try Aura" per the link above, you'll land on their dedicated Have I Been Pwned page which provides you with a tasty discount.

Aura is a perfect example of the partnerships we've sought out to help make a positive difference to data breach victims, so a big welcome and thank you for providing the service they do.