The recent Capital One data breach has affected about six million Canadians. The hacker accessed personal information of Capital One customers and people who applied for Capital One credit cards.
The person responsible for the hack has since been arrested.
With the recent data breach, Trent Hutsal, the Director of Information Technology with Fusion Credit Union has some tips to help to make your banking information more secure.
Hutsal says that identity thieves are looking for information like your full name, date of birth, Social Insurance Number, your address, and your mother’s maiden name. He suggests not ever sharing that information with anyone you may not know, especially on social media.
Hutsal adds that everyone should pay close attention to their monthly credit card and bank account statements for unexpected charges and payments.
If you feel you have been the victim of identity theft, Hutsal says the first step is to call your local police service and file a report. Then contact your bank or financial institution, and your credit card company. The next step would be to contact the two national credit bureaus, Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada, and place a fraud alert on your credit reports. Then finally the last step would be to report identity theft and fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
A useful way to prevent identity fraud is to not share any key information with anyone, even close family and friends, and change your usernames and passwords regularly.
