Protect your identity
Living in the last few decades have seen us become largely desensitized to the large number of data breaches that have been occurring and the massive risk of our identity getting stolen. There was a recent data breach that has the largest threat potential ever however, and we all need to change the way we handle our identity to prevent future problems.
In the post titled Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of every American. How to protect yourself, the details of the latest data breach are explained. Basically, a data broker was hacked and all of our most sensitive information has been leaked and is now for sale to bad actors. This includes Social Security numbers, full name, date of birth, address, and phone number for the affected individuals. There is no information on who is affected yet, but this is the opportunity we have to get ahead of the mess and protect ourselves from major losses from this and other data breaches.
This is not a very difficult thing to do, but it is time consuming and can be risky if done incorrectly. You will be putting your sensitive data into forms to freeze your credit and other accounts. This sensitive data is being sent over the internet, so be sure to connect from your home wifi. Do not do this on a public wifi or unsecure network, as there is the potential (however low) that someone could intercept the data if they are connected to the same network.
Identity Monitoring Services
There are several companies that offer identity monitoring services, you can usually buy these at a discount when you submit your taxes, or with a Costco membership. I highly recommend you pick one to use so that you can be notified quickly if there are any big changes that indicate your identity was stolen.
I currently use Norton Lifelock, not for any specific reason other than they were offered with my taxes, and I have used them for a couple years now and am familiar with them. There are a lot of reports of “Your private information was found on the dark web” that I cannot do much about, but it reminds me to use secure passwords and to use new passwords for each service.
One added benefit, is that they do give me the ability to put a lock on payday loans, which is apparently one avenue of attack the other account freezes may not cover.
Freezing Your Accounts
Alright, this is the real meat and potatoes of the information here. This is what you need to do to protect yourself in light of the new data breach, and it does take a little time to set up.
Again: DO NOT DO THIS ON A PUBLIC WIFI
There are several services that we need to freeze to prevent unwanted harm to come to us. The most important are the three major credit monitoring bureaus, as well as the system used by banks to prevent bank account fraud.
Transunion, Equifax, and Experian are the three major credit bureaus, and we need to freeze our accounts individually on each of their sites. You can do it online now thankfully, which is better than calling them or sending a letter as you used to have to.
The system used by banks to prevent account fraud is called ChexSystems. They also allow you to freeze your SSN online on their website.
Other companies that are recommended to freeze your SSN on are NCTUE - who handles utility accounts, UCSIS - who handles employment verification, and Equifax’s Work Number Database - another employment verification site.
These are important to ensure that no one opens accounts for utilities such as water or gas in your name before racking up a large bill, and to ensure that no one pretends to be you when they apply for a new job and then leave you with the burden of their unpaid income tax.
NCTUE requires an extra step at the end, where you save a confirmation code that is needed to remove the lock at a later time. Be sure you do not skip this step.
The downside to freezing all of your accounts, is that you have to manage more passwords, and you have to unfreeze them if you need to use the information for a legitimate reason. They make this easy to do, but it is an extra step that can be frustrating if you forget it.
TransUnion
This is the link to freeze your TransUnion credit report. Be sure to verify the URL of the website you are visiting to ensure that it does not look suspicious. If in doubt, don’t put in your SSN. Click “Add A Freeze” to get started.
Equifax
This is the link to freeze your Equifax credit report. Again, verify the URL is correct. Click “PLACE A SECURITY FREEZE” to get started.
Experian
This is the link to freeze your Experian credit report. Make sure the URL looks appropriate, and ensure you are on a secure network. Click “Create a free account” to get started.
ChexSystems
Here is the link to sign up for an account with Chexsystems to put a freeze on your data with them and prevent bank account fraud. Click “Register” at the top of the page to get started.
NCTUE
Here is the link This is the company that helps prevent utility fraud. They have an extra step at the end that you cannot forget to do. Be sure to save the code that is provided at the end of the setup process for freezing your account. This code will be needed to unfreeze the account later.
UCSIS, also known as E-Verify
Finally, this is the system run by the government and used to prevent identity fraud when signing up for new jobs. Information about it is at this link Click “myE-Verify account” under the ‘How To Use Self Lock’ heading.
The other system from Equifax is not easy to sign up for a freeze on, and you have to send them a letter to set it up and to unfreeze it. I will not include a link here, but you can search Equifax Work Number Database if you want to go the extra mile. Remember, you have to send them a letter to unfreeze your data…
Each of the websites has very clear instructions on how to sign up for an account, and once you sign up for an account it is easy to freeze/unfreeze your account.
The extreme danger from this new breach is that people can now use your SSN to request password resets for any service, bypassing many of the protections we have in place currently.
Be sure to enable 2-Factor Authentication everywhere it is offered, as that will mitigate much of the risk. 2-Factor authentication is where they send you a text message to verify your identity before letting you log in or allowing you to reset a password.
I hope this helps!