Data breaches and hacks are becoming a common occurrence. Last year there were 1,744 breaches! Hacks are when cyber attackers compromise the IT infrastructure to steal personal information or hold companies and organizations’ information “hostage” to get ransom payments. Breaches occur when data is unintentionally left unsecured and vulnerable to hacking. Lately it is breaches that are making the news. There have been major breaches involving 50 to 150 million customers at Equifax, Facebook, Uber, and now Capitol One. They are becoming much more frequent and this is the tip of the iceberg.
What to do
Find out if your accounts have been affected. You must be pro-active as unfortunately, a standard for informing customers doesn’t yet exist. Companies are not required to inform customers but many of them do. If you think you have been a victim of a breach, contact the company.
Change passwords. Change any passwords that were associated with the accounts that were breached.
Sign up for credit monitoring. First request a free credit report from all three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and Transunion. In the Equifax case there was a $700 million settlement which will cover credit monitoring for up to 10 years.
Freeze your credit. Even after all these breaches, only about one in four have frozen their credit. We believe that all seniors, children and others who don’t need to open new credit accounts or obtain loans should have their credit frozen with all three credit bureaus on-going. If the need for credit arises, it is a simple process with a PIN number to unfreeze the credit. Once the credit is obtained, the freeze should be reinstated.
Be vigilant. The best thing consumers can do is to be vigilant about any unusual activity from emails or phone calls. There are a plethora of fake emails and/or phone calls from criminals posing as representatives of the companies that have been breached. Never give them any information. We tell our clients not to answer the phone if they do not recognize the number or if the caller ID lists the call as unavailable, blocked number, or uses the area code and first three digits of the client’s landline. These are all scam calls. We also tell and often repeat to clients that emails will not be sent from their banks and other organizations asking for their personal information. We continue to educate them on how to discern fake email addresses. However, seniors often do not understand the nuances of these types of sender.
Don’t delay. Take these steps now for yourself and your loved one before the next breach happens.
We have to be alert when it comes to protecting our seniors. The Seniors Answer provides these and all services 24/7 365. We are there for them and their families, making sure they are safe, secure and have complete peace of mind.
