“Many clients have expressed their deep concerns,” said Kevin Lam of Age Wisely Financial, in an email. He encourages people to freeze their credit reports with the major credit bureaus, use fraud alerts, and check accounts for suspicious activity at least monthly.
“It is very stressful to know that someone, somewhere might be attempting to access your finances. The two years of free credit monitoring seems insufficient because who knows how long your information is going to be floating around for others to see,” Strobel said. “There's always going to be that fear in the back of your mind that an attacker may come after your identity even after the two years is up. It also brings up the thought about how many data breaches have occurred without anyone noticing them.”
The issue is now so common that there should be a question about how the credit system in the US could improve, he said.
“Perhaps our political leaders should be working on a way to redesign the way we access credit. Relying so much on our Social Security Numbers seems foolish. There must be a better way to enhance security and prevent fraud and identity theft,” he said.
Comments