The fallout has already started, with Anthem customersgetting bombarded with phishing scams.
Here are some things you could do right now.
Keep that report, since you’ll need it to double-check nothing’s been opened already in your name.
If everything looks good, use it as a benchmark in case something changes in the future.
Fraud alerts are great, but like we mentioned, they only last 90 days.
If the credit monitoring is free, then by all means, take them up on it.
Placing a credit freeze essentially means thatno one, including you, can pull or modify your credit report.
Our friends at How-To Geekdive into the details on how credit freezes work here.
Even so, it’s still important to be vigilant.
Also, it doesn’t hurt to ensure you’re usingstrong, up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware tools.
Similarly, once your private data is available to others,social engineering quickly becomes a huge security concern.
Finally, protecting your identity doesn’t stop with your system.
Most identity theft occurs offline, in some cases with data obtained online.
Title photo made usingNeo Edmund(Shutterstock).
