USAA, the insurance and banking company that provides services to members of the military, veterans and their families which many people may be most familiar through their television advertisements featuring Rob Gronkowski and Sam Elliott suffered a data brach in 2021 in which personal information of thousands of its customers was compromised.  The compromised information included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, driver’s license numbers bank account information and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

Now a class action brought on behalf of victims of the data breach has been settled with people affected by the data breach being notified by mail or email with a unique ID and confirmation code to file a claim. The deadline to submit a claim is April 7, 2025.  People receiving the notice may be skeptical as to whether the notice and the email link to to the settlement website is legitimate.  Here is a link you can trust if you wish to file a claim. https://www.usaadatasettlement.com/home

TIPS

So how do you protect yourself from becoming a victim of data breaches like this.

More than anything, these data breaches are another reminder that regardless of how careful we may be protecting our personal information, we are only as secure as the companies with which we do business with the worst security.  About the only way to reduce the risk is to limit the personal information we provide to these companies.  Don’t leave your credit card on file with any company and don’t provide your Social Security number to every company that asks for it unless it is truly required.  Your doctor does not need your Social Security number, but they often ask for it.

It also is important to freeze your credit reports to help protect you when data breaches do occur.  Freezing your credit is something everyone should do.  It is free and easy to do.  In addition, it protects you from someone using your identity to obtain loans or make large purchases even if they have your Social Security number.  If you have not already done so, put a credit freeze on your credit reports at all of the major credit reporting agencies.  Here are links to each of them with instructions about how to get a credit freeze:

Also, if you are in the mood to get scared you can go to the free website haveibeenpawned where you can find out what data breaches have affected you personally.  https://haveibeenpwned.com/

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