Life is hectic. As a small business owner, you have too much going on to worry about the possibility of identity theft. One breach of your personal and business information can mean thousands of dollars of charges being made in your name that creditors are expecting you to pay.
Having your browser’s home page changed might seem like something a prankster would do, but it’s the sign of a more serious security breach. After email, browser-based attacks are the second most common method of malware injection.
How many times in the last two months have you entered your credit card information into an online form? How many times did you give your mobile phone number to a website?
When you think of identity theft, do you worry about the hassle of police reports or the frustration of trying to restore your credit? Do you fear finding bills for thousands of dollars of charges in your mailbox with no way to hold the perpetrator accountable because they could be halfway across the world?
Living part of our lives in an online world means sharing more information than we used to. From providing credit card details when shopping online to storing your name and address in multiple databases in the internet world, we have a lot more need for identity protection these days.
And even if you trust the company that has your personal information stored, it could have an unexpected data breach, causing a leak of your details (SSN, email, address, name, mobile number, passwords, payment card details, etc.). Once those details are out, there’s no getting them back.
What typically happens next is your personal information going up for sale on the Dark Web.
Just how prevalent is identity theft? The report U.S. Identity Theft: The Stark Reality found that 47% of Americans were victims of financial identity theft in the past two years.
With your personal and financial security at risk, identity theft protection is something you may want to consider sooner rather than later.
Identity theft protection is about keeping you alerted in real-time should your personal information be found on the Dark Web or misused in another way.
But this is just part of the protection, you also have monitoring of your credit reports for any mysterious changes, and much more.
The sooner you act when your personal information is compromised, the better chance you have of mitigating or completely avoiding financial losses. But often, people are unaware their personal information has been exposed until it’s too late and they receive a credit card bill in the mail for a card they’ve never seen before.
Here are the key safeguards you get with identity theft protection.
When someone falsely applies for credit in your name using your details, it will show up on your credit report with one, two, or all three of the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian).
Identity theft protection includes monitoring of all three services to proactively catch any changes, which could indicate fraud. These might include:
Identity monitoring services keep an eye out for things like your name, email address, phone number, and SSN on the Dark web and other sensitive sites. For example, if someone other than you changes your address with the post office, that’s an event that identity monitoring can alert you about.
Monitoring looks at multiple ways that identity theft might be perpetrated using your personal information, including court records showing crimes that are falsely under your name, attempts to take over your credit, or property records update requests being made fraudulently.
Once you have learned that your details have been compromised, what do you do next? Many people are upset and aren’t sure what steps they need to take to protect themselves.
Having identity theft protection gives you a team of experts in your corner that can walk you through the process and help you recover from any damage and repair your credit if needed.
You’ll often get a certain level of insurance to help pay for losses due to identity theft, including the costs to repair your credit. The amount will vary according to your plan.
Magnify247 offers IdentityGuard that can give you peace of mind knowing you have someone that cares watching your back.
What makes our service better than other identity theft offerings?
Are you tired of always speaking to a computerized system when you try to get help? IdentityGuard has a unique feature which is people who can help you. That’s real live people – not automated bots or auto-attendants.
We know that when your identity is on the line, you want to speak to a human being. That’s why we make it our mission to humanize our identity theft protection service.
You’ll get immediate alerts when there are any suspicious changes detected in your personal data (SSN, driver’s license, passport, etc.). This allows you to take action right away.
But we go a step further than just alerting you something suspicious has happened. We have case managers and intake agents here for you to explain any alerts you receive and provide guidance on the next steps.
You won’t be left on your own when it comes to repairing any problems due to the theft of your personal data. The IdentityGuard Team will be by your side every step of the way helping you resolve the issue in a timely manner.
IdentityGuard can give you peace of mind and caring humans in your corner.
Contact us today to learn more! Call 317-565-7094 or reach out online.
If you have a device that you don’t use daily, you might be surprised to see it running slow when you’ve booted it up after several days. You might even think that your computer needs servicing or should be replaced because it keeps locking up on you.
If you’ve watched any sci-fi movies, like I, Robot or the Terminator series, you probably understand the perceived dangers of the digital world. Primarily the unrealistic dangers of artificial intelligence. Now, I’m not saying that AI won’t be a threat in the future but it’s important to note that right now the people using the Internet pose a much bigger threat than an incoming Robo-Apocalypse. And I’m not just talking about cybercriminals. Regular, everyday human error is what poses the most dangerous threat to your cybersecurity.
I remember the first time my dad gave me a box of tools. I was moving out for the first time, and he gave me a box filled with an old hammer, two screwdrivers (one flathead, the other Phillips head), a rusty wrench, and a tape measure. It wasn’t much but it showed me that he wanted to make sure that I was ok. He gave me those tools so that I could fix any problems that came up in my time away from him.
Seeing a data breach mentioned in the news from time to time for companies like Facebook has become commonplace. But often, it’s not something that may directly impact us in a tangible way.
Installing patches and updates for your operating system is one of the vital best practices for good cybersecurity. Approximately 60% of data breaches occur because people haven’t installed an available patch, leaving their system at risk.
