In March of this year, the Kansas Department of Commerce experienced a data breach. At the time, it was acknowledged that around half a million records that included social security numbers were accessed by unauthorized individuals. Since then, The Kansas News Service obtained additional information about that breach and reported that in truth, it was more like five and a half million records exposed.
The information is managed by a service that helps people across 16 states find work. The data accessed was for people living in 10 states.
What this means for anyone who may have been using the services of Kansasworks.com or another job searching service that works with the Kansas Department of Commerce, is that you should take advantage of the free credit monitoring service that is being offered. While this will not prevent someone from using your information to obtain credit in your name, these services do notify you if your credit report is accessed for any reason.
That is why it is also important to monitor your credit report for suspicious records. Relying on one service is not the solution. Ultimately, you are responsible for protecting your own credit, so be sure to order your credit reports from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus every year; Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can go to the website annualcreditreport.com and get them at no charge. Consider staggering when you order. If you get one every four months, you can react to anything potentially fraudulent faster and perhaps get it resolved sooner and with less pain.
If you don’t need to access your credit at all (are not getting a car loan, a mortgage, or a credit card for example), consider putting a freeze on your credit. You must do this with each of the bureaus separately, but it will prevent anyone from accessing your reports. Just keep in mind that even you cannot get to your reports if there is a freeze in place.
There are also services offered that require the bureaus to get your permission each time your reports are requested. Check with them to find out more details on what services they offer and the costs of these services.
In addition to the 5.5 million records that included social security numbers, another 800,000 were accessed that did not. However, it’s still a good idea to monitor credit reports yearly, even if you think your social security number is safe and sound.
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