Hackers have you by the PIIs, now what?

So you’ve been hacked! What is Plan B? Is there a Plan B?

We know it has happened. And that it happened months ago, in December. Workers learned about it last Thursday. The bad guys apparently have had your name, address, date of birth and social security number aka your PII (personally identifiable information) for some time. But we don’t know the full extent of the hack. The hackers got the PII on 4 million current and former federal employees. That includes about 1 million retirees.

Richard Thissen, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees, said OPM officials told him “that retirement records, including those of spouses and survivors, were not compromised in this breach.” What the hackers got was “employment data.” He said, “Some of the individuals affected may no longer be employed by the federal government, whether they retired or left federal service. Approximately 1 million federal retirees are affected by this incident, and they will be receiving notification letters by email or Postal Service over the next two weeks.”

Bottom line: Many feds are confused, frustrated, angry and scared. So what can you do to protect your credit and perhaps prevent someone from opening up credit accounts in your name?

Ever thought of a credit freeze? Ever heard of one? If not, consider this:

A fed from Washington State urged us to inform feds about the “credit freeze” option. This is what she sent:

“Credit freezes are the best protection for preventing someone from opening loans/credit in your name because banks check your credit and you are stopping them from checking thus they will not make the loan (against their policies). … One ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. … One year or 18 month of monitoring only lasts that long, your data is out there forever until you die.

“A credit freeze on all three credit rating service companies may cost you a small sum of money, around $3-$10 each depending on your state, but it is well worth the cost of constantly chasing down new loans or utilities like cellphones that you did not open. What is your time worth to you?

“For you to unfreeze your credit to take out a loan, credit card or cell phone, you simply unfreeze your credit temporarily (remember to keep your pin or passwords).

“Here is a direct link to Clark Howard’s website for more information about credit freezes and how to accomplish this important step in protecting your credit.”

Before you do anything, check out the Federal Trade Commission’s fact sheet on just what a credit freeze is here.

Meantime, if you are nervous (and unhappy) in the civil service, welcome to the club You are not, as you will see, alone.

Read all of Federal News Radio’s coverage of the OPM Cyber Breach.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

By Michael O’Connell

Three actors portrayed the villain Mr. Freeze on the 1960s “Batman” TV show: George Sanders, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach.

Source: Wikipedia

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