My Social Security number was exposed during last hack. Yours probably was too. (1 Viewer)

[Willy]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

 

[Dragons]

I haven't delved into this much, but is there any additional information released that hasn't already been released? (Equifax breach?)

Odd thing, I checked the Breach Check site. Several matches come up that are clearly me (addresses are all associated with past addresses), but the birth DAY and last two digits of SSN are incorrect.

 

[Ilov80s]

I am clean but my wife isn't. Hmm..

 

[Willy]

I haven't delved into this much, but is there any additional information released that hasn't already been released? (Equifax breach?)

Odd thing, I checked the Breach Check site. Several matches come up that are clearly me (addresses are all associated with past addresses), but the birth DAY and last two digits of SSN are incorrect.

My birthdate was blank, not right, or in day/month/**** format on some records, so I thought it was wrong at first glance. Last 2 digits of ssn were right.

ETA: The big difference with this one IMO is the data is supposedly NOT Encrypted. Many previous hacks involved encrypted data, so the bad actors didn't really have access to your SSN -assuming they couldn't decrypt it. With this hack, your SSN is clearly visible.

 

[gianmarco]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

 

[FiredMartz]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

How do you freeze your credit....

 

[Long Ball Larry]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

Yeah, I think that the sites will try to direct you to a "lock" which costs money, but you then can poke around and find the "freeze" which is free. Or something like that.

 

[Willy]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

How do you freeze your credit....

How To Freeze and Unfreeze Your Credit With Experian, Equifax and TransUnion

A credit freeze is the best way to protect yourself from identity theft. Here's how to freeze your credit with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

clark.com

I'm going to follow the steps for the freeze. Not purchasing the add-ons. Have to do it on all 3 services.

 

[Juxtatarot]

My info has been out there since the 2017 Equifax breach if not earlier. Being on this one too is kind of a “whatever” to me.

 

[bagger]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

It’s a pain in the *** but ultimately worth the hassle.

 

[Willy]

My info has been out there since the 2017 Equifax breach if not earlier. Being on this one too is kind of a “whatever” to me.

Ultimately, everyone should approach their info as though it's out there. If it hasn't been exposed yet, it will be.

 

[beer 30]

My info has been out there since the 2017 Equifax breach if not earlier. Being on this one too is kind of a “whatever” to me.

Same, something came up last year with Trans Union that they send me a monthly credit check now. Guess I should look into putting a freeze on my credit with this one too.

 

[identikit]

Looks like I'm clear

 

[belljr]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

Yeah, I think that the sites will try to direct you to a "lock" which costs money, but you then can poke around and find the "freeze" which is free. Or something like that.

Yep I used my email to sign my kid up after her number was used for taxes and accidentally signed up for some 19 a month service. After I got the billing i was like WTF??? Then realized where i screwed up. Now I get bombarded with emails from Equifax.

Their website is like a freaking as seen on tv ad with all the options to add on when trying to navigate

Are we sure that checker website is actually clean? lol

 

[gianmarco]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

How do you freeze your credit....

How To Freeze and Unfreeze Your Credit With Experian, Equifax and TransUnion

A credit freeze is the best way to protect yourself from identity theft. Here's how to freeze your credit with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

clark.com

I'm going to follow the steps for the freeze. Not purchasing the add-ons. Have to do it on all 3 services.

Yep.

They actually used to charge for this (like $5) years ago but that's been done away with after all these credit breaches.

The nice thing is you can log in, unfreeze on a certain date and also set a date to have it freeze again so you only have to log in and do it once. Mild inconvenience, takes like 5-10 minutes to get to all 3 sites and get it done, but it's worth it so you don't ever have to worry about someone opening any accounts under your name/SSN.

 

[Peggy]

My info has been out there since the 2017 Equifax breach if not earlier. Being on this one too is kind of a “whatever” to me.

Right. Just have 2 factor authentication or better on all your bank accounts. Banks are starting to use voice verification and everything else now days. Someone having your SSN, birthdate and mother's maiden name shouldn't be that big of a deal anymore.

That being said your phone is the gatekeeper to a lot of this stuff. I don't do any banking at my main banks by using my phone. I've heard stories of people getting jacked of their phone where they force you to unlock it and suddenly overnight they are in your bank accounts. If you do banking on your phone and someone tries to rob you you're better off smashing your phone before they can take it.

 

[Wildcat]

Thanks for the post. My SSN was exposed, but the rest of my family wasn't. I froze my credit with all 3 providers. Fairly east to do.

 

[Willy]

My info has been out there since the 2017 Equifax breach if not earlier. Being on this one too is kind of a “whatever” to me.

Right. Just have 2 factor authentication or better on all your bank accounts. Banks are starting to use voice verification and everything else now days. Someone having your SSN, birthdate and mother's maiden name shouldn't be that big of a deal anymore.

That being said your phone is the gatekeeper to a lot of this stuff. I don't do any banking at my main banks by using my phone. I've heard stories of people getting jacked of their phone where they force you to unlock it and suddenly overnight they are in your bank accounts. If you do banking on your phone and someone tries to rob you you're better off smashing your phone before they can take it.

Multi-factor using your phone is not secure even if your phone isn't stolen. Hackers can clone your SIM, transfer the number to the cloned phone and the muti-factor goes to the hacked phone.

Maryland woman loses $17K in SIM card swap scam despite two-factor authentication | I-Team

How did a Maryland woman lose $17,000 even though she had two-factor authentication?

wjla.com

 

[Peggy]

My info has been out there since the 2017 Equifax breach if not earlier. Being on this one too is kind of a “whatever” to me.

Right. Just have 2 factor authentication or better on all your bank accounts. Banks are starting to use voice verification and everything else now days. Someone having your SSN, birthdate and mother's maiden name shouldn't be that big of a deal anymore.

That being said your phone is the gatekeeper to a lot of this stuff. I don't do any banking at my main banks by using my phone. I've heard stories of people getting jacked of their phone where they force you to unlock it and suddenly overnight they are in your bank accounts. If you do banking on your phone and someone tries to rob you you're better off smashing your phone before they can take it.

Multi-factor using your phone is not secure even if your phone isn't stolen. Hackers can clone your SIM, transfer the number to the cloned phone and the muti-factor goes to the hacked phone.

Maryland woman loses $17K in SIM card swap scam despite two-factor authentication | I-Team

How did a Maryland woman lose $17,000 even though she had two-factor authentication?

wjla.com

Well in that case the phone company gave the hacker her phone number via a new sims card. Not really cloning. Phone companies need to be responsible for identify verification.

Actually cloning a sims card isn't possible (eta: nearly impossible, never say never) without your phone getting out of your possession, i.e. stolen.

 

[Ilov80s]

I guess my wife is smart. She said she has credit always on freeze unless she’s going to make an inquiry for credit herself.

 

[Osaurus]

I’m in the clear for this one, but I received a letter yesterday from a former employer explaining my personal information had been taken from one of their servers. I haven’t worked for this company in 10 years. Wtf we’re they holding onto this information after all this time?

 

[gianmarco]

My info has been out there since the 2017 Equifax breach if not earlier. Being on this one too is kind of a “whatever” to me.

Right. Just have 2 factor authentication or better on all your bank accounts. Banks are starting to use voice verification and everything else now days. Someone having your SSN, birthdate and mother's maiden name shouldn't be that big of a deal anymore.

That being said your phone is the gatekeeper to a lot of this stuff. I don't do any banking at my main banks by using my phone. I've heard stories of people getting jacked of their phone where they force you to unlock it and suddenly overnight they are in your bank accounts. If you do banking on your phone and someone tries to rob you you're better off smashing your phone before they can take it.

Multi-factor using your phone is not secure even if your phone isn't stolen. Hackers can clone your SIM, transfer the number to the cloned phone and the muti-factor goes to the hacked phone.

Maryland woman loses $17K in SIM card swap scam despite two-factor authentication | I-Team

How did a Maryland woman lose $17,000 even though she had two-factor authentication?

wjla.com

I'm on Verizon and have my numbers "locked". They can't be ported to another phone without me changing that.

And, 2FA is great, but whenever you can, you should have accounts set up with authenticator apps/tokens and not with text messages and then it's even more secure.

 

[glvsav37]

I've been exposed 2x in the recent memory by AT&T and I'm very frustrated. I feel like calling them and asking for some money back for any of my bill that was supposed to be going to keeping this info safe. I know I'll never get anywhere so I can save the high blood pressure, but it is very frustrating.

I kinda live on the "your info is already everywhere" assumption, but when major companies like AT&T get hacked it grinds my gears.

 

[Brownsfan]

I’m in the clear for this one, but I received a letter yesterday from a former employer explaining my personal information had been taken from one of their servers. I haven’t worked for this company in 10 years. Wtf we’re they holding onto this information after all this time?

Same thing happened to me. A retirement plan I never vested in

 

[NutterButter]

Credit frozen, tax return protected by pin, 2FA all on my financial accounts. I think there are probably a few easier targets out there. There's probably still a chance something bad can happen, but don't think there's any point worrying about it.

 

[3C's]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

Putting a freeze on your credit is free. You don't have to pay for that at all.

In fact, you should always just keep it frozen and just unfreeze it temporarily whenever you need to have your credit pulled for something (car, loan, credit card, etc).

It’s a pain in the *** but ultimately worth the hassle.

Disagree that it's a pain. My wife had a separate bank account and we wanted to add me to it. In doing so they had to run a credit check. We're in the office with the branch manager (sidebar:HOT!) and I asked her who they use. Logged in to the site using my phone, did a quick 2 day unfreeze...done!

 

[Willy]

Credit is now frozen on all three bureaus for my wife and me. Probably 15-20 mins effort for each of us.
The mobile phone has been locked so the number can't be transferred to a new SIM without an additional passcode. I didn't know that was an option until this thread. thank you @gianmarco

Next is doing whatever is needed to lock up the tax returns with a pin. After that, I'll swing through my accounts and make sure everything is MFA or authenticator apps. This has been a hassle, but worth very worth it to have some piece of mind. If nothing else, easier targets will exist, I guess that's the theory of: you don't have to outrun the bear, just run faster than your buddy.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

What do they mean by 2.9 billion records? That’s obviously way more than the number of social security numbers that have ever existed.

 

[Juxtatarot]

What do they mean by 2.9 billion records? That’s obviously way more than the number of social security numbers that have ever existed.

When I checked what they had on me, there were several records. That included addresses that were over 25 years old.

 

[Phil Elliott]

You can also put a fraud alert on your credit. I think for a year at a time. They do some some extra steps to identify anyone using your credit. Probably have to do it with each of the three credit agencies.

https://www.transunion.com/fraud-alerts

 

[skol asylum]

Time for the fedgov to come up with an overhaul of the outdated SSN. Gotta be something more secure we can come up with.

 

[Kanil]

This was a huge breach:

National Public Data confirms massive data breach included Social Security numbers

National Public Data, a company that compiles public information to supply background checks, has confirmed it suffered a data breach.

www.usatoday.com

So I checked if my stuff was part of the latest breach and of course it was. I plugged in the data for my wife, sisters, mom etc. Pretty much all of them were part of it. My kids (in their early 20s) were not. On some level, I assumed my info has been out there for some time, but now I know it for a fact.

You can check for free here:

NPD Breach Check - Pentester.com

npd.pentester.com

I guess it's time to put a credit freeze on my account. I've been resisting that. I don't want to pay the credit bureau money to fix a problem they should be largely responsible for by subscribing to one of their credit monitoring services. Two of the three services charge a monthly fee, and you have to do this on all 3 services. I considered Lifelock but it feels like you get most of their stuff (minus the insurance) by freezing your credit and monitoring it on one of the free services like CreditKarma.

Anything else we can or should do?

My data was lost years ago with the US OPM breech. They know everything about me already!

 

[Orange&Blue]

Credit is now frozen on all three bureaus for my wife and me. Probably 15-20 mins effort for each of us.
The mobile phone has been locked so the number can't be transferred to a new SIM without an additional passcode. I didn't know that was an option until this thread. thank you @gianmarco

Next is doing whatever is needed to lock up the tax returns with a pin. After that, I'll swing through my accounts and make sure everything is MFA or authenticator apps. This has been a hassle, but worth very worth it to have some piece of mind. If nothing else, easier targets will exist, I guess that's the theory of: you don't have to outrun the bear, just run faster than your buddy.

huh?

 

[BassNBrew]

I'm on there 5 times with addresses going back 30 years but nothing current. Interestingly enough one of the DOBs is the fake one I used on Facebook. Make that 7, just check another state.

 

[Psychopav]

UGH. Went to all 3 credit agencies and created accounts. Experian? No problem. Experian? No problem. Transunion? Account created, I THINK I froze my credit, but TU has been unable to confirm that for me for over an hour now:

Sorry, we're having trouble showing the status of your credit freeze right now​

You can contact us during support hours via the live chat icon at the bottom of the screen, or by giving us a call at 800-916-8800. Our support hours are Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 11 p.m. and Saturday - Sunday 8 a.m - 5 p.m. Eastern Time.

:sigh: