I Got A Data Breach Notification. How Likely Am I To Have My Identity Stolen?

With data breaches happening nearly every day, it’s likely you’ve gotten the standard data breach notification letter via email or mail.

Scanning the letter, perhaps you wondered to yourself, “Great, am I more likely to have my identity stolen now?”

The answer is undoubtedly YES.

If you are notified of a breach, you are 11 times more likely to be a victim of identity fraud than those who are not notified, according to the 2017 Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy & Research.

Recent Federal Trade Commission research presented at the FTC’s Identity Theft Workshop on May 26 illustrates the point “If the info is posted, they will use it — and quickly” with shocking clarity.

The FTC’s study showed that thieves will attempt to use stolen consumer credentials within minutes of being made public.

In order to study the attempted use of stolen consumer credentials, the FTC created a database of information about 100 fake consumers. They used realistic information including names, email addresses, phone numbers and either a bitcoin wallet, credit card or online payment service. It looked very much like a database that could have been stolen from any number of small businesses.

The database was posted twice on a website hackers use to make stolen credentials public. The first time the data was posted, it got around 100 views. The second time the info was posted, it was picked up by a Twitter bot and got more than 550 views. On that second posting, it only took the criminals 9 minutes before they started trying to use the information.

There were over 1,200 attempts to access the email, payment and credit card accounts. The identity thieves tried to use our fake consumers’ credit cards to pay for things ranging from clothing and online games to online dating memberships and pizza.

Until now, there’s been a disconnect for consumers when it comes to data breaches and how it affects their lives specifically.

“There’s a real mystery of what happens to consumer data when it becomes public,” said study co-author Dan Salsburg, chief counsel and acting chief of the FTC’s Office of Technology Research and Investigation in this CNBC.com story about the FTC  research.

While some folks have opted to set up alerts for suspicious transactions, including big ticket purchases and transactions originating abroad, it’s important to note that the vast majority of the attempted charges in the study were for less than $10. That’s because the thieves are just trying to verify the account is still active before trying to buy that Ultra HD television.

The big takeaway from the study is while there are some things you can do to help prevent identity theft — using complex, unique passwords, enabling two-factor authentication and watching your credit card and bank accounts closely — it’s really important to be proactive about protecting your identity.

“The information is already out there by the time you find out about [a data breach],” said Paul Stephens, the director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in that CNBC.com story. “Unless you’ve been proactive, it may be difficult to remediate the situation.”

This is where LibertyID can help. When identity theft happens to you, LibertyID gets everything back. We provide fully-managed identity theft restoration. We will restore your credit score, resolve IRS fraud on your behalf, replace all lost identification and restore your identity to pre-event status.

Our success rate for restoring stolen identities is 100 percent, often within just 30-45 days. As a LibertyID subscriber, if something happens, all you have to do is contact us and our army of trained specialists go to work immediately. We’ll work diligently to get everything back. Even better, there’s no limit to what we will do or how much time we will spend. We guarantee your identity will be restored to its pre-event status.

Sign up with LibertyID and the next time you get a data breach notification, you’ll rest easy knowing you’re covered.

 


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