3 Essential Ways to Protect Your Identity

After last years security breach with Equifax, identity theft has become more of a hot topic than ever before. If your identity is not even safe with one of the three main credit bureaus, how in the world do you keep from getting hacked? It’s a serious issue that needs attention. Even with the disappointing Equifax breach which exposed the personal information of 145.5 million people to potential hackers, there’s still hope. In fact, because this beach was so huge it’s actually encouraged more people to take a serious look at protecting themselves. It’s also put the credit bureaus in the hot seat and because of that, more types of protection are being offered. Let’s take a look at three ways you’ll want to protect your identity starting today.

3 Essential Ways to Protect Your Identity

Photo by Fabian Irsara via Unsplash.

1. Temporarily Freeze or Lock Your Credit Report – One of the best ways to prevent credit fraud is to put a temporary freeze on your credit report at each credit bureau in between loan or credit card applications. It used to be that you had to contact the credit bureau and pay a fee each time you froze or un-froze your report. Now you can easily do it online at your convenience with each one (now called “locking” your report), however, this service is not free at all credit bureaus, unfortunately. Still worth doing, though, as this is one surefire way to protect your credit identity.
2. Sign Up for a Monitoring Service – Although we’ve known about it for years, most of us have put off signing up for a monthly monitoring service that will alert you if any part of your identity is stolen or being used. While these monitoring services don’t necessarily prevent your identity from being stolen in the first place, they definitely come in handy for preventing additional damage from happening by alerting you if you’re identity is used for anything. Plus, most come with insurance which takes care of getting your identity back after it’s been stolen. From what we’ve heard, this is not something you want to take on yourself! Although each credit bureau offers this type of service, for the most bang for your buck, you’ll want to find a monitoring service that covers all three bureaus such as Identity Force or Life Lock to name a few. It’s always best to do your research!
3. Don’t Use Public WiFi for Identity Sensitive Material – Here’s another tip that you might not think about. When you use public WiFi it’s much easier for hackers to access your information. For example, let’s say you’re at Starbucks using their WiFi on your laptop. You’ll want to not visit any sites that have personal or sensitive information until you’re at home on your own personal WiFi network. Stay away from bank accounts or any financial sites (such as sites where you can pay your bills, credit cards or loans). Do not visit sites where you have to enter your social security number either until you’re on a secure and private WiFi network, again preferably your own at home which no one else has access to.

As our lives become more and more intertwined with the internet and tech, there will be many more things we’ll have to think about that can easily fall into the hands of the wrong people. Since things move so fast these days, keep up to date with identity theft news and most of all, use common sense. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Better safe than sorry. But if you start with these three essential tactics to protect your identity, you’ll have a head start at keeping your identity yours and yours alone.

Main photo courtesy of https://edubirdie.com/