Boo!
Even more scary than that.
Data Breaches
Remember when these were a big deal?
By now, they seem to happen daily. Ho Hum. Just like the government shut down.
But beware of complacency. These matter. Here’s why.
We hear about the big ones like the 2024 National Public Data breach where 2.9 billion (yup, with a B) records were exposed. These records contained Name, SSN, address, email and phone numbers. For some nostalgia, read more here from Microsoft.
Big Deal
If I have your name address and SSN, I can probably open up a loan or credit card in your name. That’s a big deal.
It’s identity theft and if the government wasn’t shut down, you could report it at identitytheft.gov. But it is shut down, so hang in there.
Identity theft is a nightmare to unwind. We need to get a credit report to find what’s been opened in our name. We need to track down and close accounts, If our license was compromised, we may need to go to the RMV. We need to change all of our financial accounts. We need to change all of our logins and passwords.
This is months of work, and meanwhile, scammers are siphoning our accounts.
Yuck!
So while we’ve heard this song before, it is a big deal.
Protection
But hopefully we’ve all protected ourselves.
- We’ve set up a credit freeze at all 3 credit bureaus – Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. We must do all 3.
- If we didn’t want the freeze, at least set up a credit alert which asks lenders to contact you before authorizing a new account.
- Use strong passwords and a password manager and a unique password for every account.
- Don’t answer phone calls texts or emails from anyone you don’t know.
- Get a free identity monitoring service through your credit card or through a trusted site like credit karma. (don’t pay!!)
- Consider a VPN
- Consider using a service like Apple’s hide my email
- Read my other posts including here and here for more info
The Latest
My free identity theft through my Apple Master Card informed me:
Wrap Up
Over the past few years, there have been lots of breaches. So many, that most of us now no longer pay attention.
This is a mistake. While most likely we won’t have our identity stolen, the pain we’ll go through – and the expense – makes it worth our while to protect ourselves.
At this point, we should all assume our social security number and other personal info is compromised. While this is unfortunate, it just further emphasizes that we need to take precautions. If you haven’t set a credit freeze, do it now. Read more here.
And whatever you do, don’t respond. Fishing is all about getting us to respond and then over time weaseling more and more info from us. Don’t respond and the game ends right away.
Good luck!