Be Hard To Steal From

 

The recent National Public Data breach impacted millions of Americans, including me.  Here’s what I am doing about it, and I encourage you to take similar steps.

As we continue to read reports of cyber attacks and data breaches, it’s becoming more critical for prepared citizens to improve their cyber hygiene and protect their information.  Don’t have a plethora of ham radios, get home bags and firearms to protect yourself only to have to deal with identity theft later.

Fortunately, my identity wasn’t stolen, but my social security number is now out there.  I admit I should have done some of this a long time ago.  I’m fortunate to have the chance to still fix this without having to deal with identity theft.

I’ll start with an admonition: none of these recommendations are bullet proof.  But they do create significant barriers to stealing your identity or impacting your credit.  The idea here is to make it sufficiently difficult that the bad guy moves on to an easier target.

Step One: Go to all four credit bureaus and freeze your credit.  

To set this up for these credit reporting agencies, it will take you about ten minutes total.  Here are the direct links to do so:

TransUnion

Experian

Equifax

Innovis*

*This is a lesser known one; Consumer Reports recommends freezing your credit with them as well.

Make sure you save the passwords to these accounts, as you will need to log back into “unfreeze” them if you need to get a loan.

Then, log back into these accounts to verify a freeze is actually in place.  When I set these up for a couple of them, the freeze wasn’t automatically turned on when I set up the account.  Go back into the account and make sure the freeze is turned on.  If it isn’t, turn them on.  (It’s easy to turn it on once you’re in the account.)

Freezes are free to do.  You can unfreeze your credit simply by logging back in and toggling from “freeze” to “unfreeze.”  Some of these agencies will let you provide a window of dates for your credit to remain unfrozen if you’re applying for a loan within a given window of time.

Step Two: Subscribe to an ID Threat Protection provider.  

I am currently using Experian IdentityWorks as I was given a free multi-year subscription due to a previous data breach.  It works well, but it’s not cheap – $24.99 per month for an individual or $34.99 for a family per month.  It’s the service that alerted me my SSN was part of the National Public Data breach.  Having said that, I would likely consider signing on for another subscription.

I’ve identified two other providers which may be of interest to you:

Zander Insurance, recommended by Dave Ramsey, for only $130 a year which includes home title monitoring.

Aura, which Forbes ranked number one in a recent survey of ID threat protection providers.  Currently available for only nine dollars a month and also includes home title monitoring.  I’ve signed up for this as a belt and suspenders approach.

A word on “home title locks”

There is no such thing as a “title lock.”  It is a monitoring service for your home title.  Read more about it here.  Furthermore, the company “Home Title Lock” has been the subject of attorney general investigations.

Step Three: Use a Password Manager

I’ve been using one for a few years now, and my only regret is not using one sooner.  It generates passwords for your various logins and then saves them.  You only need to know your master password.  I use Dashlane, recommended here.

Step Four: Turn on Two Factor Authentication (2FA) As Much As Practical

I’m a big fan of 2FA, although I do get annoyed sometimes when I have to wait for a text code when trying to log into something.  You’re likely using 2FA right now on several apps or websites already – anytime where you have to get a code texted to you to enter as part of the login process is an example of 2FA.  It adds a layer of security to your accounts, making it harder to hack into them.

To the extent it’s practical to add 2FA to your logins – especially ones involving your bank and other financial institutions – I suggest you do so.

Again: none of these are bullet proof.  By throwing up more road blocks for the bad guy, the hope is they will move on to a victim not as prepared as you.  As our friends in the self  defense community are fond of saying, “be hard to kill.”  In this instance, be hard to steal from, too.