New York Attorney General Letitia James recently advised New York residents how to protect themselves after a medical transcription service cyberattack compromised the personal and protected health information of millions of New York residents.
Some of the recommendations Attorney General James made are applicable to any data breach or data leak in which your identity information might be involved, even if there is no medical or health information involved. The Data Breach Times is annotating her recommendations, below, to point out what is useful for all data breaches or leaks in which identity information is definitely — or even just possibly — involved:
- Monitor your credit. Credit monitoring services track your credit report and alert you whenever a change is made, such as a new account or a large purchase. Most services will notify you within 24 hours of any change to your credit report. After a breach, the breached entity may offer you complimentary (free) services such as credit monitoring or identity restoration services. They cannot sign you up for the services, but you can sign yourself up for the free services.
- Consider placing a free credit freeze on your credit report. Identity thieves will not be able to open a new credit account in your name while the freeze is in place. You can place a credit freeze by contacting each of the three major credit bureaus, below. We remind you, however, that a credit freeze only prevents criminals from opening an account if a credit report check is required to open the account. They may still be able to open accounts if no credit report is required. A free credit freeze report is a good way to prevent some problems. If you need to allow a bank or firm to run a credit report on you, you can temporarily unfreeze your credit report by contacting the credit reporting bureaus to lift the freeze for however long you need it lifted:
- Equifax | https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze +1 (888) 766-0008
- Experian | https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html +1 (888) 397-3742
- TransUnion | https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze +1 (800) 680-7289
- Place a fraud alert on your credit report. A fraud alert tells lenders and creditors to take extra steps to verify your identity before issuing credit. You can place a fraud alert by contacting any one of the three major credit bureaus listed above.
- Obtain copies of your medical records. Contact your doctors, clinics, health care providers, pharmacy, and insurance company to get copies of your medical records. Review the records for anything you do not recognize. After a review of your medical records, report any errors and ask for corrections from your health care providers. This is time-consuming and can be costly to pay for records, but if your medical records with your health insurance, diagnoses and prescriptions are stolen, there’s always a possibility that someone may try to misuse your information to get medical care for themselves or to use it to bill insurers fraudulently, so do check.
- Contest unrecognized medical billing: Wrongdoers may receive medical services in your name where you receive the bill. You should contest anything you do not recognize.
- Inform your insurance company. Tell your insurance provider of any suspected fraud and find out if they have specific protocols for these situations. If the attack is related to Medicare, contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General online or at 800-447-8477.
