AG Nessel urges students impacted by Hope College data breach to protect personal information
(CBS DETROIT) - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is urging current and former Hope College students impacted by the Dec. 15 data breach reported earlier this month to protect their personal information.
According to the attorney general's office, an unauthorized party gained access to personal information, including full names, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, driver's licenses and student identification numbers.
"Anyone who received notice from Hope College related to this breach should be taking steps to combat potential identify theft," Nessel said. "While bad actors may have access to your information as a result of this breach, there are ways to protect yourself if your information was compromised."
Nessel urges anyone who believes they were affected by the breach to do the following:
- Monitor credit: Credit monitoring will alert a person whenever a change is made. Most services will notify you within 24 hours of any change to your credit report.
- Consider credit freeze on credit report: Identity thieves cannot open a new credit account in the victim's name when a freeze is placed.
A person can place a credit card freeze by contacting one of these three major credit bureaus: Equifax | online or by calling 888-766-0008, Experian | online or by calling 888-397-3742 and TransUnion | online or by calling 800-680-7289
- Place fraud alert on credit report: This alert lets lenders and creditors to know to take extra steps to verify a person's identity before issuing credit. Contact one of the three major credit bureaus to do this.
Anyone who believes they are a victim of identity theft to visit the Federal Trade Commission website or contact the attorney general's office for assistance.
In addition to this, Hope College is offering 12 months of a free credit monitoring service to those impacted by the data breach. Officials say a call center has been set up to assist individuals with questions and can be reached at 833-540-0798.
