@cr101 wrote:I've gotten a few alerts over the past few yrs about my info being found on the dark web. I haven't done anything, like freeze my account. The info that they have are my ss#, license state, and an address from about 3 moves ago. I guess that I just have faith that no one will actually use my info. But, what do you personally do when you get these alerts?
I would at the very least keep my credit frozen and also consider freezing the supplementary bureaus as well.
Breaches are common. We only hear about the big ones normally. The real question is how valuable is the data in the breach to a malicious party?
Another way to look at this is how you can mitigate any potential harm from a breach, past, present, or future…
You can mitigate that through creating long & strong passwords. Even if your email or other personal data is circulating, hardening your accounts can make those data worthless to an attacker.
The most important thing is to use long, random passwords through a password manager such as BitWarden, 1Password, or LastPass. Whenever available, use two factor authentication (2FA), whether it be a code texted to your phone or a one-time password such as through Google Authenticator.
That applies to just about every online account that you have. For credit, you also have the ability to lock or freeze your data.
I find those alerts are useless. They literally (from my perspective of course) do, or give you nothing useful. That said, ALL of my reports are frozen except when I am going to apply for something. I even have several the lesser-knowns frozen. (Lexis-Nexus, Innovis, Sagestream, Chex) So no worries.
I've even had a prequal tool or 2 not work because they couldn't verify me, so freezing definitely works. Your mileage may vary, however if you've already taken steps to safeguard your data/identity, then there's little that can be done with it when a breach occurs. I mean let's be honest, even Equifax let our data get stolen so if those no-talent hacks can get breached, you better believe our data is floating all around out there.
There are additional (secondary) bureaus beside the 3 main ones.
They are also collecting and holding data.
Read here for more information: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/SECONDARY-CREDIT-BUREAUS/m-p/6566843
They are often forgotten when it comes to credit freezes.
What @Centurion_Dreamer said. Personally I think the lesser-knowns may be more important since they are used almost universally without our knowledge. Not a bad idea to have them send you a report and check for accuracy. I found them to be MUCH more accurate than EQ, EX, and TU to be honest.
