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CSO Disclosure Series | User Education: How to Respond to a Data Breach Disclosure

Just find out that your personal information has been compromised? Here’s what to do.

rtually impossible for anyone (including you!) to obtain new credit in your name.

4. Consider a credit monitoring service. Ponemon and Stephens both stress that credit monitoring services do many things that you could do yourself for free. For instance, thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), you can get a free copy of your credit report every year from each of the three bureaus—that’s one free credit report every four months. However, if you don’t have the time to monitor your own credit, it might be worthwhile to pay for a credit monitoring service. Find out if the company that sent you the breach notification is willing to pay for this service. Ponemon is suspicious of free credit monitoring services, which may put spyware and adware on to your computer.

5. Decide when to call the cops. If you’re the victim of identity theft and not just credit card fraud, you do want to call the police and file a police report, Stephens says. Keep a copy of the report for your records. Typically, though, you don’t need a lawyer. Ponemon suggests working with the company responsible for the breach before you do anything else. “Call them if there is suspicious activity on your statement,” he says “They need to know, and they probably have a system in place to help. They are motivated to keep you [as a customer], so it’s often to your advantage to contact them,” he says. If you need more assistance, you can also contact your state attorney general or the Federal Trade Commission.

Kathleen Carr is a former editor for CSO.