Data Breaches Target Black Friday Shoppers

Black Friday 2013: The last thing you were probably had on your shopping list was identity theft. Unfortunately though, up to 110 million people had their credit and debit card information stolen in one of the biggest data breaches ever.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Jim Cramer from CNBC's Mad Money interviewed LifeLock CEO Todd Davis on his evening show on January 16. Target has offered free credit monitoring to all who have been affected. But is credit monitoring really enough?

Davis carefully explained to Cramer that while credit cards can have fraudulent charges waived, a debit card breach can wipe out your money in one quick instant. If a thief gains access to your banking or retirement accounts with the correct passwords and PIN numbers, it's very much like being mugged after you have just visiting the ATM machine. Banks will disavow that it's their fault.

Credit monitoring will alert you to any new accounts being opened in your name but that's as far as they go. LifeLock offers a $1 million service guarantee with a commitment to making you whole if your identity is stolen while you are a member.

Hackers of this caliber know exactly what to do with the stolen information to get the biggest bang out of their heist. These aren't amateurs.

An email from Target CEO on January 15 says,

"In addition, to guard against possible scams, always be cautious about sharing personal information, such as Social Security numbers, passwords, user IDs and financial account information. Here are some tips that will help protect you:

• Never share information with anyone over the phone, email or text, even if they claim to be someone you know or do business with. Instead, ask for a call-back number.
• Delete texts immediately from numbers or names you don’t recognize.
• Be wary of emails that ask for money or send you to suspicious websites. Don’t click links within emails you don’t recognize.

Target’s email communication regarding this incident will never ask you to provide personal or sensitive information."

 I am able to quote this email because it was sent to me - I was one of the 110 million people affected. However, I've had a LifeLock membership since 2008 and know that I have a good company on my side looking out for me. I recently opened a new FIOS account for my cable/internet. Within 10 minutes of giving my personal information to Verizon, I had a phone call from LifeLock checking to see if it was really me who was opening the account.

You can get more information about LifeLock at http://lifelockpromocode.blogspot.com.