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Naperville
Friday, March 29, 2024

Focus on Safety – Are more data breaches to come?

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Unless you are hibernating (which is entirely possible due to the extreme weather) you have probably heard about the data breach that Target suffered during the holiday season of 2013. Credit and debit card data for tens of millions of customers was compromised. For cyber crooks, hacking can net big rewards with little risk.

smith_julieIt is estimated that as many as 110 million customers were affected by this data breach. This is not the first nor last time this will happen. So this leads me to the question of what can we do as consumers to keep our personal information from falling into criminal’s hands?

For starters, consumers can open their credit card and bank statements and thoroughly look them over. Often times when a credit card number gets stolen, thieves will make a small purchase to check the validity of the card. If the small transaction goes through, the criminal will start making larger transactions.

Check your credit regularly. The federal government legally provides each person with one free credit report each year from each of the three credit bureaus. Their mandated site for providing those reports is AnnualCreditReport.com. If you stagger the reports out throughout the year, you could obtain a credit report by one of the bureaus every four months. There are many web sites offering free credit reports, but remember it costs extra if you would like to know your credit score.

Whenever possible, consider using cash. From the time you give your credit card to a merchant and the transaction is completed, your data can be passed onto several different businesses. The more businesses that are involved, the better the chances for data being compromised.

Remember, if someone contacts you asking for personal information or to “verify” anything, this is a huge red flag for a scam. Whether being contacted via e-mail, mail, or phone, don’t respond!

Until next month, Stay Aware & Stay Safe!

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Julie Smith
Julie Smith
Julie Smith is Crime Prevention Specialist at the Naperville Police Department. Contact her at SmithJu@naperville.il.us or (630) 305-5450.

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