8 Moves to Avoid Cyber Identity Theft

Capital One notified customers this past Monday that their customer data was compromised by Paige Thompson, a former Amazon Web Services software engineer. And if the recent Capital One breach doesn’t make you nervous, it should.

They believe she accessed 106 million accounts and stole 140,000 Social Security numbers, 1 million Canadian Social Insurance numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers. Capital One said that no credit card account numbers or login credentials were included in the stolen data.

She exploited a flaw in Capital One’s firewall as early as March 2019, however Capital One wasn’t notified about the breach until July 19th. If you are one of the individuals who were affected by this breach, Capital One will reach out directly and offer next steps in addition to free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.

Yet, it’s only one of the many breaches that have rocked the world.

Just two years ago, the Equifax breach took customer names, Social Security numbers, and more from over 147 million Americans. Just last week, Equifax and the FTC finally came to a settlement of at least $575 million and up to $700 million to compensate victims of the hack.

But that’s not the last of them. There was also the Target data breach in 2013, the Home Depot breach in 2014 and the Yahoo breaches in 2013 and 2014.

All of this is to say that it’s more important, now than ever, to monitor your information to avoid an impact from cyber criminals or data breaches. Here are some of the things you can do to stay aware and protected:

1. Check your statements and balances on a regular basis. Your bank statements and credit cards are not something to “set and forget.” It’s important to check these on a weekly (if not daily) basis. This will help you identify any identity fraud early on, lessening the impact a criminal can have on your finances and credit score.
2. Set up credit card alerts. It’s wise to have credit card apps installed on your phone because they allow you to check in on purchases and your history of transactions from anywhere. But instead of constantly opening the app, set up mobile alert notifications. You can enable them each time the card is used, for transactions where the card isn’t present, or even transactions over a certain dollar value.
3. Freeze your credit. Although you have to file for them separately, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian allow you freeze your credit for free. By freezing your credit, you prevent anyone else from accessing your credit reports to get a new line of credit. You will personally have to unfreeze your credit in the event that you want to get a loan, apply for a new credit card, or other services that require a credit check.
4. Be cautious of your online activities. You should always browse the internet safely. This means deleting and reporting scam emails, avoiding websites that aren’t secure, and not clicking on untrustworthy links. Consider installing an antivirus program or malware identification software.
5. Sign up for an identity theft monitoring service. Don’t try and take on the challenge of monitoring your financial health and online identity all your own. Choose any one of the many identity theft monitoring services to get oversight on credit activities and the use of personal information. These companies also offer help and insurance policies in the event that your identity is stolen.
6. Shred anything with your information on it. The worst thing that could happen is you throw away paperwork that ends up in the wrong hands. Invest in a shredder to get rid of any offers, financial statements, or bills that have your information or request it.
7. Use strong passwords. It’s crazy to think that 81% of hacking-related breaches were due to either stolen and/or weak passwords. It’s no secret that you should be creating strong passwords, yet most people use (or worse, reuse) the simplest of passwords. To help with password creation and management, invest in a password storage service like LastPass. Also consider using the built-in password generator on your iPhone or in Chrome.
8. Check if your email has been compromised. Someone might have access to your email and you may be none the wiser. To find out if your email and password were leaked, check out “‘;–have i been pwned”. Not only does the site keep a running list of the latest breaches, but it also lets you check if your email was part of a breach.

The unfortunate reality is that data breaches can (and do) happen. We’re more connected than ever via computers, smartphones, and cloud services, which also opens up more opportunities for hackers. The best thing you can do is to adhere to the tips above to keep yourself and your data safe, even in the unfortunate circumstances like a hack.