While there is a certain numbness caused due to data breaches, largely owing to their increasing frequency, experts claim you should not be any different to the possibility of one actually causing you harm.
A couple of years after it was publicly revealed of the massive Equifax breach — a cyberattack that that hacked the personal information of about 148 million people and recently resulted in a $700 million court settlement — consumers are still not properly able to make sure they aren’t the victims of fraud, according to the latest survey by CompareCards.com.
It comes even after thousands of other breaches after that, including in and around 1,200 in 2018 alone, reported the data from Statista.com.
Two years after huge Equifax breach was revealed
“I think buyers are just not able to live with it because they live in the present where breaches are a reality,” told credit analyst John Ulzheimer, head of The Ulzheimer Group in Atlanta.
The CompareCards survey, a dome in mid-August amongst 750 buyers who have taken at least one credit or debit card, have asked respondents what they had ensured in the past year to protect themselves from identity theft.
While more than 95% had taken a minimum of 1 of 10 steps for detecting or protecting against fraud — and the others are being either somewhat or displaying more vigilance — the most efficient methods to battle identity theft remained largely not used.
For instance, only 9% froze their credit, which is the best option to interrupt a fraudster’s effort to get a loan or credit card in your identity.
A credit freeze usually denies outside access to your file. This ensures a scammer would be struggling to use your personal information to start a financial account because the potential lender would be unable to access your report to go through with the application.
