These services can assist if you're concerned about your Social Security number being exposed.

A class-action lawsuit has been proposed, alleging that in April 2024, a hacker group known as USDoD stole the personal information of 2.9 billion individuals, including social security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and phone numbers, as reported by Bloomberg Law.

To protect your identity from the negative effects of identity theft, such as credit damage and time-consuming resolution, you can take proactive steps.

Identity protection services that can help you

A reliable identity theft protection service can assist you in detecting fraudulent activities promptly and preventing them from escalating.

Aura is a top-notch service that safeguards entire families from financial fraud, identity theft, spam calls, online theft, phishing, and scam websites. While you can purchase an individual plan, Aura's exceptional deals are its family plans, priced at $18/month billed annually and $29/month billed annually.

Aura offers annual plans with cyberbullying alerts for online gaming, child identity protection alerts, and family alert sharing. All plans come with a 14-day free trial.

Another service that can assist is IdentityForce, as all plans include dark web scanning, which is particularly useful following a data breach since hackers frequently target selling stolen personal information on the dark web.

IdentityForce offers up to $1 million in identity theft insurance coverage, which can reimburse you for any expenses incurred in resolving a stolen identity. In 2023, identity fraud cost Americans a staggering $23 billion, as reported by Javelin Strategy & Research, a research firm specializing in financial services.

How to freeze your credit

Freezing your credit is a quick and simple way to prevent lenders from accessing your credit report and approving new lines of credit like personal loans, mortgages, and credit cards.

While your credit is frozen, identity thieves won't be able to apply for new credit under your name.

Credit freezes do not affect your credit score or your ability to utilize existing lines of credit, such as credit cards.

Freezing credit with each of the three credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion - is easy, but you'll need to do it separately. With Experian, you can freeze your credit by signing into your account and clicking one button. However, you may need to contact Equifax and TransUnion to freeze your credit.

• Equifax: Go to the Equifax consumer services center or call 888-378-4329.
• TransUnion: Go to the TransUnion's website or call 800-916-8800.
• Experian: Contact Experian's security freeze center or call 888-397-3742.

What to do if your identity has already been stolen

If you're already a victim of identity theft, the Justice Department's Offices for Victims of Crime suggest taking these steps to recover your identity.

• Contacting one of the three credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit report will prevent anyone from opening up more lines of credit using your information.
• You are entitled to a free credit report from each bureau after a fraud alert is in place. It's crucial to review your report to identify any instances where your information was used to open a line of credit in your name.
• It's crucial to keep track of all conversations and notices with financial institutions if you need to seek legal assistance in the future.
• Submitting a report to the FTC can help law enforcement investigate identity theft cases by entering the information into the Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse database.
• To safeguard yourself from any consequences resulting from crimes committed by an identity thief using your name, contact your local police department to file a police report. While identity thieves may not always commit crimes under the victim's name, it is always better to take precautions.

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Our mission at CNBC Select is to deliver top-notch service journalism and in-depth consumer advice to our readers, enabling them to make informed decisions with their money. Each article is crafted by our team of expert writers and editors, who possess extensive knowledge of identity protection and credit monitoring products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content independently, without any input from our commercial team or external third parties. We uphold the highest journalistic standards and ethics. For more information on how we select the best identity theft protection services, please refer to our methodology.