After the Identity Hack: What to do?
by Michael Potter · 6 things on Twos
- Nearly anyone who went to college in the last 50 years and received US government loans had their personal information leaked due to poor data management by the now defunct Salley Mae. Criminals try every year to submit my taxes and attempt to get money by applying for unemployment.
- You will need to get a PIN code from the IRS in order to securely get your taxes submitted. https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin
- The first step to take is protecting your assets and bank/credit. Your bank should have some tools for free to review your credit score, freeze credit requests, and monitor your accounts for fraud.
- The second step is to look at is a service called Incogni. Their systems will search and destroy your personal data on the Internet by legal means. This costs money each month from $15-30 but work. https://incogni.com/
- A critical third step is to setup multifactor authentication (MFA) on every single service you use including and especially Facebook and Google accounts. I use Microsoft Authenticator. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/mobile-authenticator-app
- After MFA, the fourth step is to use a password manager like 1Password to create and manage complex/unique passwords. It's not free but is probably the most important change you can make concerning your online world. https://1password.com/