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Protect your reputation so that you can protect democracy [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-09  

I’ll get straight to the point: Please consider establishing a free ‘initial fraud alert’ with one of the three US credit bureaus. According to the FTC, “a fraud alert will make it harder for someone to open a new credit account in your name. A business must verify your identity before it issues new credit in your name.” You only need to notify one of the three bureaus, and the alert will be in place for one year.

I am not a financial expert, but I can share what I’ve gathered below.

All Americans are currently at heightened risk of impersonation (commonly called “identity theft”) due to a deluge of computer system breaches targeting all types of major organizations over the past few years, including school districts, retailers, hospitals, and even Microsoft. There have also been numerous attacks on governments and their contractors, both for purposes of espionage and economic crimes. And these are only the ones that have been announced to the public. Fraud and identity theft complaints to the FBI increased substantially around 2020 and have stayed elevated.

Many of us have received warnings that some of our confidential information may have been obtained by criminals during one or more of these events. However, even if you have not received a notification about any event, I think it’s likely that some confidential information is now known by criminals, particularly the kind of information that creditors use to confirm your identity when offering loans (e.g. social security number, credit history, previous residences).

Due to the recent surge in data breaches, some people have recommended that everyone request a ‘credit freeze’ from the credit rating agencies to prevent criminals from opening loans in their names. This is more extreme than a fraud alert, and I’ve known people to run into complications when using a credit freeze because it applies to more than just loans — utility providers also run credit checks, so a freeze can can block you from signing a contract for natural gas or phone service. The freeze can be removed, but it provides another layer of bureaucratic complexity to completing the transaction. Notably, a freeze should not affect getting “credit report[s] for employment, tenant-screening, or insurance purposes”. Freezes also are in place until you remove them, while the fraud alert will only last for a year, which I hope will be enough to get us through a period of heightened risk.

In addition to the risk faced by all Americans, I am concerned that the Daily Kos community could be specifically targeted for harassment during the election campaign. I do not have information about any specific threat, but we all know that we are facing several large, well-organized and well-funded adversaries who are willing to break the law to interfere with the election. I am concerned that these adversaries, both foreign and domestic, have the resources to initiate broad-based harassment campaigns against ground-level advocates for Biden’s election, and even the general voting public in critical communities. By doing so, they could focus our attention on fighting off creditors right at the time that we need to be getting people to the polls.

We are pretty soft targets and should pay some attention to protecting ourselves before the campaigns heat up. A fraud alert seems like a basic, common-sense defense against these increasing incidents of ‘identity theft’. Frankly, creditors should always actively confirm the identity of the person they are providing credit to, and we’re only in this boat because we’ve accepted their sloppy business practices as the norm and let them shift the blame to uninvolved third parties (the person whose ‘identity was stolen’). I do not think it’s necessary to pay for any ‘identity protection’ service; I’ve been given free services after data breaches affected my information, and I don’t really find them useful (but I would take them if offered for free) — lots of false alarms, and you can just check your statements and credit reports to get the same information.

For more information about improving your information security practices, see the “Internet Safety Month” website from the the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), or this video about identity theft from the FTC:

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/9/2242905/-Protect-your-reputation-so-that-you-protect-democracy?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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