The hackers who break into corporate computers to steal your personal information had another successful year in 2022 – unfortunately – which means you need be even more diligent about protecting yourself from identity theft.
There were more than 422 million victims of data breaches in the U.S. last year, an increase of almost 42 percent from 2021, according to the new breach report from the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). Some people were breached more than once.
The personally identifying information (PII) compromised in these attacks often includes everything an identity thief would need to impersonate you, including full Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, birthdates, driver’s license numbers, age, and current home addresses.
“The criminals will take all of this data about us, and they use it in a variety of ways,” said Eva Velasquez, ITRC’s CEO. “They could use this information to impersonate you for their own monetary gain. They could even use it for medical goods or services. They could provide it to law enforcement in the commission of a crime.”
Massive data breaches in the last few years have affected billions of accounts. So, at this point, you need to assume your personal information has been compromised, and is being bought and sold by criminals.
“We have to adopt the mindset that we’re protecting information that’s already out there, and that that the thieves and the scammers already have access to,” Velasquez told Checkbook. “So, taking some of those simple steps, things like freezing your credit to ensure that your data that’s already out there can’t actually be misused is so important right now.”
A credit freeze (also called a security freeze) makes it difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts in your name by locking your credit report. If potential creditors can’t access your credit file, they can’t generate credit scoring for you, which makes it highly unlikely a potential creditor would approve a new credit card or loan, or open a new bank account to a crook using your stolen identity info.
“Freezing your credit is the most robust and proactive consumer protection step you can take to protect your identity. It stops the thieves in their tracks,” Velasquez said. “Even if someone has all of the identity credentials necessary to impersonate you and they attempt to open new accounts, they still can’t do it.”
You need to place a freeze with each of the big three credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. It’s free, and can be done online. It doesn’t take long—and it sure beats the hassle of dealing with the problems that can be caused by an identity thief.
All your current creditors will still be able to check your file, and a freeze will not negatively impact your credit scores.
More Info: How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft and Cyber Fraud
Listen to Consumerpedia podcast: Stop Thief! How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft
Herb Weisbaum, The ConsumerMan, is a contributing editor at Checkbook.org, a nonprofit organization with a mission to help consumers get good service and low prices. It does this by providing unbiased ratings, advice, and price information. Checkbook is supported by consumers and takes no money from the service providers it evaluates.
