Coming Sunday
The AJC’s Sean Sposito reveals just how vulnerable your personal data is.
Raise your hand if you got caught in the Target ID theft? I did, along with 70 million others.
Last week I received a letter from my credit card company letting me know my information had been compromised. It said the company will be monitoring the situation and automatically send a new card if necessary.
A few hours later, I got the now famous letter from Gregg Steinhafel, Target chairman, president and CEO, apologizing for the breach and offering a year of free credit monitoring.
This is the most extensive attention I’ve ever gotten as a victim of a data breach. I couldn’t help but wonder why. Even with at least 70 million users affected, this isn’t the largest hack in history, so why all the attention to this one?
This breach involved lots of data — card numbers, encrypted PIN data and personal data. A Wall Street Journal article said the breach was part of a broad attack that took place during the holiday shopping season at several retailers. The undetectable virus that snatched all the data was partly written in Russian, suggesting the attack may be tied to organized crime, the story said. Experts quoted in the story say this is the first time they've seen a hack of this sort on such a large scale.
So what does that mean for you and me? That any of that stolen data can be used (or sold to someone else to use) to get additional information about you, to unlock other accounts using the same passwords, to steal your identity and so on.
The investigation is ongoing, so who knows what else may come out? In the meantime, here are some things we can do to protect ourselves:
- Be particularly vigilant about fake emails or phone calls from "Target" or credit card companies offering help but asking for additional information. Target will not ask for Social Security numbers, birth dates, passwords and the like via email, it says. Always get a call-back number instead of providing that type of information by phone.
- Delete texts from numbers you don't recognize.
- Sign up for the free credit monitoring and ID theft protection offered by Target. You have until April 23 to register. See the Target website for details on how to get your unique activation code.
If a non-Target card was involved, you can also do the following:
- Sign up for online and mobile banking and account alerts so you can monitor your account at all times, then actually remember to monitor your account. Contact the company if you see transactions that you don't recognize.
- Change passwords regularly and never share your user name, password or security questions with anyone. Use a password manager to help.
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