Helpful miscellaneous articles
regarding our retirement plan and planning.
Like you, I review my retirement nestegg and plan from time to
time. Recently, I went though some
continued education for some credentials I maintain and it occurred to me that
we all could use a review about these issues.
So with your help, we will share and post articles and info that may be
helpful and of interest to many of you in this section.
The following article and tips are both a Security and Financial issue: You’ve heard about this breech
but it may be worse than 1st reported
Giant Equifax data breach: 143 million people could be
affected
Equifax
says a giant cybersecurity breach compromised the personal information of as
many as 143 million Americans — almost half the country.
Cyber criminals have accessed
sensitive information -- including names, social security numbers, birth dates,
addresses, and the numbers of some driver's licenses.
Additionally, Equifax said that
credit card numbers for about 209,000 U.S. customers were exposed, as was
"personal identifying information" on roughly 182,000 U.S. customers
involved in credit report disputes. Residents in the U.K. and Canada were also
impacted.
The breach occurred between
mid-May and July, Equifax said. The company said it discovered the hack on July
29.
The data breach is one of the
worst ever, by its reach and by the kind of information exposed to the public.
HEY PCN,
YOUR DATA WAS MOST LIKELY STOLEN SO CHECK OUT YOUR STATUS HERE BY
SUBMITTING NAME TO EQUIFAX:
Improve Your Protection – Mark’s Tips
Equifax breach (which got most of us) is just a current
reminder of how this kind of data breach will go on over and over again and how
we need to be viligiant about our financial account’s security. Here is a few things I have found out.
First, the bad guys got enough to open accounts or take out
loans in your name and with a little extra skill break in to some of your
accounts to transfer funds. The first
part of opening accounts or taking out loans is what account freezes helps with
but I am also concerned with account hacks that allow transfer of funds. A word about Lifelock. It predominantly locks up the first part of
the problem but as to the account hacks and transfer of funds you must take
your own extra precautions. Here is
what you can do to improve security:
1. Security
Freezes : because of the breech it may
even be given to you for free. But what
I can tell you is that companies like LifeLock’s main means of protecting you
is two fold.
a. Security
Freezes – Which basically prevents someone getting a loan or starting a NEW
account in your name.
b. Their
2nd service includes ALERTS.
Which you can set up for free at every single financial account that you
have.
So from my
perspective I like security freezes (I have 3 at Equifax, Experian and
TransUnion) as they prevent loans and new accounts building debt and putting me
on the tab for them. But there are other
steps that are quite simple to take and maybe even more important. Lets leave the credit cards alone for a
moment and talk about your main financial and retirement accounts login and
hacking protections.
2. 3rd
level of login procedure. Most financial
institutions have a 3rd tier of login protection, in addition to the
ole username and password, they will use a security question, a customer ID #, or a new service call VIP Access by Symantec. Big brokerage and banks are starting to use
the VIP Access system. It is easy to
use. You download an app for your phone
and then the account is linked to the serial number of your app. Every 60 seconds the app produces a new
special one time use ID #. When you
login at Schwab or Fidelity or the like, the 3rd tier of protection
is the VIP Access step before you have access.
Those institutions will then ask you for your VIP Access number now
appearing on your phone. Enter it and
wallahh your in. But the good news is
that without that ID the bad guys CANNOT get in. Pretty neat and really almost a must have in
today’s world of constant scammers. This
really shores up your online login in security protection, but what about over
the phone verbal protection. Ask your
financial custodians about a 3rd tier of login and hacking
protection like VIP Access. If they have
it employ it……..if not insist on them getting it or move to a custodian that
does have it.
3. Phone
CALLIN account protection. Two things
here:
a. Add
a PIN or some call it a Verbal Password to your account for when you call
in. This prevents all those who may have
all things necessary to call in and rob you blind but if they don’t know this
PIN or VERBAL PASSWORD they can’t do a thing.
b. Sign
up for Voice ID. Both Fidelity and
Schwab have this and it is fantastic.
You record your voice and the computer on their end recognizes as
distinctly as fingerprints. A bad guy
cannot, even with a recording of your voice, fool their computer. It provides you a very high level of scammer
protection.
4. Now
credit cards:
a. If
the breech says your credit cards were included in the breech, call the card
companies and ask for new card account numbers issued.
b. In
addition, every credit card account allows for significant alerts to be
established. Do that and also even
consider withdrawal restrictions.
c. Lastly,
limit the number of cards and monitor the activity more often.
There are certainly
risks having assets under someone else’s roof, and you cannot control
all of them, but the most dreaded of hackers scheming into your account and
draining you dry is a reality that we must all be vigilant against. Take the above steps and you will go a long
way to improving your security. Happy, secure retirement! Mark
Our DCCU Equifax Security Tips
Security Posts
Information on Equifax Cybersecurity Incident
Updated
September 21, 2017
On Thursday, September 7, credit-reporting company
Equifax announced a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting as many as 143
million people.
Delta Community and other Visa® card
issuers receive regular updates when Visa is notified that some of their card
numbers may have been exposed as merchants are required to disclose this under
the Visa network rules. We use these alerts from Visa to monitor the affected
cards more closely to help protect these accounts from fraud. If we learn
additional data was compromised beyond the card number, such as the security
code on the back of the card and/or the cardholder’s name and address, then we
may take the extra, precautionary step of issuing our member a new card. In
that instance, we would send the member a new card with instructions on how to
activate it and why we felt it was necessary to change their card number.
For members who are concerned about the Equifax
compromise, we encourage you to visit their website dedicated to this
cybersecurity incident: www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. Through this website,
consumers can find out if and how their personal information has been impacted.
If you have been affected, you will be invited to enroll in complimentary
identity theft protection and credit file monitoring services through an
Equifax product.
The security of our members’ data remains a top
priority for Delta Community. In addition to working with Visa®
Fraud Prevention Services to proactively monitor credit and debit card
activity, we offer Identity Theft protection products that guard against
criminal, medical and financial fraud. These Identity Theft and fraud
monitoring services are completely independent from the program that Equifax is
offering to affected customers.
If you are impacted, you may also consider placing
a freeze on your credit with all of the following credit reporting agencies.
Freezing your credit will prevent those with your personal information from
opening accounts in your name. Keep in mind, however, that a security freeze
can also delay or interfere with the timely approval of any subsequent requests
or applications for new credit, loans or services. You will need to remove or
temporarily lift the security freeze before applying for new credit, and this
may take a few days and come with a small cost. Learn more about credit freezes
from the Federal Trade Commission.
Please be on high alert for impersonators or
phishing attempts by fraudsters. Be on the lookout for emails that appear to be
from these companies, telling you that you’ve been impacted, or otherwise
creating a sense of urgency, and to “click here” for more information. When in
doubt, do not click the link and do not download any attachments. Any
legitimate company will have another way for you to contact them to be sure the
email is safe.
We always encourage members to review their account
transaction details regularly and notify us if they see any suspicious
activity. You can call us at any time via our toll-free number at 800-544-3328
or locally at 404-715-4725.
Posted: September 08, 2017 by Delta Community
~~~~~~~~~
(As
with any of these informative articles, anyone who needs someone to talk to
about
this
very subject contact me and I can direct you to a knowledgeable advisor).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Full post disclaimer in left column. PCN Home Page is located at: http://pcn.homestead.com/home01.html
No comments:
Post a Comment