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Going through my mail the other day, I noticed three identical official-looking letters addressed to my wife, myself, and our daughter. Of course, it piqued my interest because letters of this nature are never a good thing. I opened the letter addressed to me and quickly realized it was from one of our healthcare providers. It was a three-page letter explaining that the company had experienced a data breach and the security of my personal information had been compromised. That information included my name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and some vague references to my health records. The letter went on to offer me the obligatory free credit monitoring for a year, fraud consulting, and identity theft restoration. After confirming that my wife and daughter received the same letter, I filed the letters with the other two providers I had received similar letters from in the past year. I was amazed at the fact that one of my banks, a financial service provider, and now a healthcare provider all had security breaches affecting me or a member of my family in the past year. I am also amazed how these companies get away with just sending a letter and making a free offer to provide credit monitoring for a year, and that is supposed to make it all better. But the sad reality is that once exposed, your data is exposed for good. There is no expiration date on stolen data or when it could be used to facilitate identity theft against you. Of course, the perpetrators of these crimes understand this all too well. DATA BREACHES ARE RAMPANT Having received three letters in one year from different providers, it made me wonder just how many Americans are exposed to such cyber-crimes each year? According to Statista, in 2022, there were 1,802 data compromises impacting 422 million individuals in the United States. Wait, that is one year? The American population is about 350 million. That means statistically, some Americans were exposed multiple times, as validated by my personal experience in the last year. In 2018, that number was a staggering 2.2 billion individuals, and over 5 years, the number totals more than 4 billion individuals. I do not know how accurate those numbers are, but it is safe to conclude that your information and the information of each of your family members has been compromised multiple times and will continue to be compromised. WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF First, whether or not you have been affected by a security breach, you should periodically review your credit report and financial accounts for suspicious activity. You should report any unrecognized activity immediately to the appropriate financial institution. You want to do everything you can to minimize your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft – and more often than not, the steps you can take will not cost you a dime. To go back to my situation for a minute, I didn’t take any action when I received the most recent letter from our healthcare provider because I had already taken steps to minimize our exposure by establishing online accounts with the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) for each member of my family. We were already utilizing their free credit freeze services and had implemented a fraud alert on each of our accounts. That is not to say you should not take advantage of any offer you receive from a company that has informed you of a breach that affected you or a family member’s personal information. Many times, they will offer you enhanced credit monitoring services at no cost to you. Adding an additional layer of protection, even for a limited time, is certainly worth it. FREE CREDIT FREEZES ARE REQUIRED BY LAW In 2018, a federal law was passed that required the credit bureaus to offer free credit freezes or security freezes to consumers. A credit freeze, in its simplest terms, restricts access to a consumer’s credit file, making it harder for identity thieves to open accounts in the consumer’s name. It does not limit access for everyone. There are exceptions that allow certain firms to still access your credit with a freeze in place such as existing creditors. However, it certainly limits who can see your information. To implement a credit freeze, you must contact each of the three credit bureaus separately.
It is generally not a pleasant experience. For that reason, it is important that you maintain good records, including your user ID, password, and any other security information required to access your account in the future. This is because once you put a freeze in place, you will have to unfreeze your account if you need to apply for any form of credit. In a time-sensitive situation like getting credit approved, you do not want to run into problems accessing your account. For example, we recently applied for a new credit card for my wife and had to remove the freeze on all three bureaus prior to submitting the application. Once she was approved, we simply went back in and turned each back on. It was a smooth process, and it felt good that we were in control of the bank accessing her credit file. LONGER FRAUD ALERTS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE The 2018 law also extended fraud alerts from 90 days to one year. When a fraud alert is placed on your file, companies extending you credit are alerted to the fact that you may have been a victim of identity theft and are required to take additional steps to verify your identity before establishing any new credit in your name. You only need to contact one of the credit bureaus to add a fraud alert to your account, and they are required to share it with the other bureaus. You can do this through your online account as well. If I had not already had fraud alerts in place when I received the recent letter, this would have been the first thing I would have done. Think of the credit freeze and fraud alert as something equivalent to having security at your home. If you have an alarm, cameras, or even a dog, you become a less attractive target for thieves. It is not foolproof, of course, but they are looking for the easy target, so they may just go down the block to the house that has none of those protections in place. It takes some work to manage these data protection services, but it is a lot easier than dealing with the fallout from becoming a victim of identity theft. If you have any questions or require assistance, please feel free to Contact Us. Your StraightLine team is here to help! Thank you for reading our blog and for being a member of the StraightLine community. *Statista data https://www.statista.com/statistics/273550/data-breaches-recorded-in-the-united-states-by-number-of-breaches-and-records-exposed/
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