Business & Tech

Five Tips to Protect Yourself During a Data Breach

Hackers continue to disrupt national retailers and consumers with data breaches and the inconveniences inherent with them.

And while there is ongoing discussion about why so many retailers are being hit by these high-tech hackers — and what needs to be done to put an end to it — for consumers, the most important thing is protecting our personal information.

So what should we do?

Here are five tips from the Better Business Bureau:

  1. Contact the organization that suffered the breach – they should have a hot line setup to address your concerns and answer your questions.

  2. Monitor your banking and credit statements closely – Check every item on your bank statements and credit card statements to be sure they are legitimate charges and expenditures.

  3. Contact any affected financial companies – If your bank accounts, credit card accounts, or investment accounts are affected, immediately contact the companies and request that the account be closed and a new one opened.

  4. File a fraud alert with all three credit reporting agencies – The credit reporting agencies are required by law to flag your credit report for 90 days if you file a fraud alert. Then if someone tries to open a new account using your information you should be contacted for verification.

  5. Sign up for any free credit report monitoring that’s offered. – If the company that compromised your information offers a free monitoring program take advantage of it [One credit report provider is www.annualcreditreport.com]. 


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