The Senate Site: Stay Safe

By Carlene Walker
Utah State Senator, District 8

The theft of records at the U of U Medical Center is not the first large-scale breach of sensitive private information in Utah. It was actually the fourth such incident in less than six months.

We will not know the impact of the recent theft anytime in the near future. Even if the tapes are recovered no one would know if they were copied. The thief now knows how valuable they are.

The costs of just monitoring the credit of the 1.3 million people with stolen SSNs will run between $31 and $46 Million dollars. To their credit, the University Medical Center has committed to making sure that credit monitoring will be provided free for a year.

Bottom line: We can not know that our private information is secure. Many times we won't know our information has been taken until years later. And we may never know.

Given that reality, what is our next line of defense?

Here is a short list.

1. Monitor your credit report. At a minimum, you should check your credit report. Go to annualcreditreport.com (NOT freecreditreport.com. Annual Credit Report .com is free. Free Credit Report . com is not. Go figure.) You may request a free report from each of the credit agencies once a year, so it makes sense to do one every four months.

2. Red Flag. Contact each of the three credit bureaus and put a 90 day red flag alert on your credit files. This is free, but you have to renew it every 90 days.

3. Credit Freeze. If you want to take safety a step further, you can freeze your credit. It will cost you $10 per credit bureau but I think it's worth the $30.

We passed legislation so, beginning in September 2008, you will be able to unfreeze your credit in 15 minutes. Currently it takes three days. This matters when, for example, you suddenly want to buy a new car and they have to check credit quickly.

4. If you think you may be a victim of ID fraud the Attorney General's website will walk you through reporting, then rebuilding your credit and your life.

Here's the link:

www.idtheft.utah.gov