Could You Be a Victim of Identity Theft?

The chances of becoming an identity theft victim are higher if you’ve ever attended a college or university, worked at a college or university or been a patient of a university physician or at a university hospital.

The identifying information--and sometimes the financial information--of approximately 2.5 million employees, students and patients at 31 colleges and universities has been exposed so far this year—and it’s only April.

By far the largest of these data breaches occurred at University of Miami with 2.1 million records being exposed. All the records included name and Social Security number; many contained financial information. In this case, the records were stored on tapes, and were en route to an off-site storage location. The case containing the tapes was stolen from a van owned by the storage company.

Thirteen of the data breaches are attributed to stolen or lost laptops, or other portable data storage devices, e.g., flash drives, etc. Only four of the data breaches was the work of computer hackers.

How Can You Protect Yourself From Identity Theft?

Even if you’re conscientious about protecting your personal information, the corporate and public entities that have access to your information might not be. Since January 2005, more than 226,000,000 records have been lost, stolen or exposed. It’s a sure bet that much of that information ended up in the hands of identity thieves who buy and sell identities all over the world.

In this environment, it’s doubly important to tightly manage your credit records. The best steps to take are:

• Place fraud alerts on your credit files with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Be sure to renew them every 90 days.
• Review your credit reports regularly. An identity thief could have already set up a new account in your name, using another address for billing. If you’re not checking your credit report, you could suffer extensive financial damage before discovering the fraud.
• Be aware of when your billing statements arrive; if they aren’t delivered on time, contact the creditor. By changing their victims’ addresses identity thieves have an open conduit for all the personal and financial information they need.