Interestingly, Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security posted an article about credit report freezes.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-embrace-the-security-freeze/
While the info posted there is well known to many here, one of the commenters brings up a good point. Companies that lose personal data shouldn't just provide credit monitoring, which is often too little too late, but also assist with freezing credit reports, which can be highly effective. In the meantime, freezing is well advised for those potentially affected and/or not intending to apply for credit in the near future.
While some are aware of the so-called 4th bureau (a misnomer of sorts) Innovis, and may seek to freeze that. However, freezing ChexSystems may be more worthwhile, since often ID thieves will attempt to open a new bank account. Generally, the more bureaus one freezes, better one's security, but also more to keep track of. It's a trade-off...
For many, freezing the big 3 bureaus will be sufficient to thwart many id thieves who will move on to easier pickins.
As for difficulty and expense of freezing, in particular thawing (better) or removing (may be necessary for those on app sprees; rebuilders), that's by design. The credit banking industry seeks credit to be frictionless with little regard to one's personal financial security.
Heck, if card issuers could, they'd send out activated cards ready to use like some did back in the old days until regulations were changed requiring verification prior to activation. Some, often very sub-prime lenders, still do in a round about way with loan checks. A relative of mine received one last year - it was real and all he would have had to do was endorse and deposit. No activation nor verification. A credit freeze would have reduced the odds of him receiving such a loan offer.
Finally, as already pointed out, freezes generally don't affect current, established accounts. Existing lenders can still SP and update as usual. In some instances, there can be issues, but major credit card lenders deal with frozen reports all the time and have procedures in place to deal with that. On an aside, for an existing lender, a consumer with frozen credit reports can potentially be advantageous, since they're less likely to apply for more cards; stick to using the cards they already have.
