By Joe Turk
With everyone concerned about the recent Equifax Data breach, we recommend people remain vigilant and review their credit card, banking and financial transactions on-line very carefully. You can check Credit Karma for your credit scores and activity; however, the service is limited and updated from TransUnion and Equifax every 7 days.
The top three credit monitoring services are LifeLock, IdentityForce and IdentityGuard–with LifeLock coming out on top in competitive ranking articles. Per Lifelock’s website, depending on the level of concern you have towards the recent Data breach, you can decide between the LifeLock Advantage plan for $20 per month or the LifeLock Ultimate Plus plan for $30 per month. The major differences of the two are that the Ultimate plan covers you for $1 Million in restoration fees and the Advantage Plan only covers you for $100,000 in restoration fees. Below is a link to an article that helps break down some of the differences between the services.
LifeLock Advantage plan
- $100,000 Stolen Funds Reimbursement
- U.S.-Based Restoration Team
- SSN and Credit Alerts
- Lost Wallet Protection
- Address Change Verification
- Black Market Website Surveillance
- LifeLock Privacy Monitor™
- Credit Monitoring: One Bureau
- Bank & Credit Card Activity Alerts
- Alerts on Crimes Committed in Your Name
- Data Breach Notifications
- Fictitious Identity Monitoring
- Annual Credit Report & Score: One Bureau
Ultimate Plus Plan
- $1 Million Stolen Funds Reimbursement
- U.S.-Based Restoration Team
- SSN and Credit Alerts
- Lost Wallet Protection
- Address Change Verification
- Black Market Website Surveillance
- LifeLock Privacy Monitor™
- Credit Monitoring: One Bureau
- Bank & Credit Card Activity Alerts
- Alerts on Crimes Committed in Your Name
- Data Breach Notifications
- Fictitious Identity Monitoring
- Annual Credit Report & Score: One Bureau
- Monthly Credit Score Tracking: One Bureau
- 401(k) & Investment Activity Alerts
- Bank Account Takeover & New Account Alerts
- File-Sharing Network Searches
- Sex Offender Registry Reports
- Priority Live Member Support
For any questions on Lifelock’s various services, please visit their website to speak with a Data protection expert or visit Tom’s Guide’s article, which outlines each credit monitoring service in detail.
For more information on the Equifax Data Breach and those affected, refer to our previous blog Protect Your Identity: How to Recover from a Data Breach.
Robert Risk is Director of Technology Advisory Services and Joe Turk is Director of Information Technology at Wiss & Company, LLP. If you would like to contact Bob or Joe, you may reach them at rrisk@wiss.visioncreativegroup.com & jturk@wiss.visioncreativegroup.com respectively, or at 973.994.9400.