What information was leaked?
Although no bank or payment information was disclosed, a lot of personal information that is needed to run a credit check has been exposed, including names, addresses, security numbers social, birthdays and ID numbers (driver's license, for example, military identification numbers or passport).
How can I protect myself?
In attempts to improve the situation, Experian has set up a website for T-Mobile customers and candidates to get all the details about the violation. In addition, as a provider of identity theft protection services well known ProtectMyID, it is not surprising that Experian offers victims of violation of a two-year membership to its service. While this is a good gesture, it should be noted that ProtectMyID may not be the best option for the victims of violations because it lacks in some areas of protection -. Such as providing consumers with copies of all three credit reports
When you sign up for ProtectMyID plan for customers of T-Mobile, the service will track (on a daily basis) every three of your credit reports - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax - and alert you if something is added to your reports. In addition, you will be provided with a copy of your Experian credit report. While the daily monitoring is good and the Experian credit report is useful, it would be ideal if you also received a copy of your TransUnion and Equifax credit reports to complete, especially as all credit accounts are reported to all three offices. The reason behind this is simple: if your information was exposed and used fraudulently before the start of the credit report monitoring, you probably do not know because you will be notified of the credit activity that occurs after you signed - the only way to catch it is to look at all three of your credit reports at this time. As such, you have two options here to compensate for this lack of coverage.
1. Sign up for another service to protect against identity theft: We know it is difficult to refuse a free service, but when it comes to theft identity, you do not want to take a risk. That's why it may be best to register for a protection service against identity theft which not only provides you with three office monitoring credit report, but also gives you copies of all three of your credit reports immediately after registration. This will help you paint across all activity on your credit reports and verify that it is legitimate, and the report of any potential fraud.
Two best services that provide both the three credit report monitoring office and all three of your reports and notes to your credit registration is Identity Guard and TrustedID. Besides having a label of budget-friendly price - $ 14.99 / month for Identity Guard and $ 9.38 / month ($ 112.50 / year) with an annual prepayment or $ 13.49 / month with monthly payments for TrustedID - both services also come with a free trial (Identity Guard has a 30-day trial and TrustedID has a 14-day trial), which means that you can test them before making a financial commitment. With such flexibility, you can even sign up for ProtectMyID plan and free one of these services together and determine which is best for you. Visit our graphic identity theft to look for more information on these services.
2. Check your credit reports. If you have decided that the ProtectMyID plan for T-Mobile customers is the best for you, you always want to be sure to check your credit reports because they may contain fraudulent accounts that were opened before you up for the service (as explained above). You can go about this two ways: subscribe to another service of protection against identity theft with a free trial and cancel before the trial is in place or check your credit reports AnnualCreditReport. com, a service approved by the government that provides a copy of all three of your credit reports for free every year. Each of these options will allow you to comb through your reports and to recognize all the fraudulent accounts that were opened before tracking ProtectMyID.
Another thing that the violation of victims may want to keep an eye on is their bank accounts. Since so much personal information such as your Social Security number and date of birth, was leaked in the hack, it is likely that hackers will try to access your financial accounts. You can fight against this by regularly checking your bank statements and make sure you report fraudulent activity as soon as you spot it.
Finally, as hackers have the names and addresses of victims, it is likely that T-Mobile customers will be targeted for scams. Check out our guide not to fall for a scam to make sure you protect yourself from these targeted attacks.
Why this major violation?
Although it seems that we hear of a new data breach every week, this violation is different. Not only was there a violation of third party exposed the customers of another service, but a server in one of the three credit bureaus has been hacked. Thinking that an entity that holds so much personal information can be violated in any way - even if it is just a server - is frightening. If anything, this violation shows consumers that they need to take their identity protection seriously and make sure they do not do security errors in their daily lives.
Follow our blog violation to follow this violation and read our reviews of protection against identity theft to learn about the top notch services.