The new protection service brokers need to know about

By Alicja Grzadkowska - Originally published on the 20th of April, 2018

On a list of the worst cyber breaches from 2017, the theft of 143 million Americans’ social security numbers from Equifax comes out on top. While the breach set the wheels in motion for many companies to implement cyber training for their employees, a risk mitigation strategy isn’t complete without identity protection services.

“Cyber training usually gets lumped in with all of the other training we have to do as a company,” said Jeremy Henley, vice president of Identity Protection Services at ID Experts, who will be leading a free webinar about addressing identity theft in risk mitigation strategies on April 25.

Not that this training isn’t useful – it can teach employees what a phishing email looks like or how to create a strong password. On the other hand, identity protection software actively guards against nefarious activity using personal information that could lead to fraud.

“Because data is getting richer and richer with people sharing more information and having more devices, and more companies retaining more data, the file I can get on somebody if I’m trying to steal this stuff is going to be a lot thicker than it used to be,” said Henley, adding that it’s not just credit card information that’s at risk today. “That’s the small stuff nowadays that we see. The bigger stuff is tax fraud, medical identity theft, child identity theft, employment fraud – those are the kinds of things that are really scary, and you need help from a professional and early detection that’s going to make it less of an issue for you.”

Identity protection services help to detect when fraud may be occurring and alert a user of early signs of fraud. ID Experts’ software includes credit monitoring and sends email alerts on credit file changes. The program also monitors criminal websites for stolen identities and personal information, and alerts its members whenever a medical claim is made against their identity. This is combined with a $1 million reimbursement insurance in the event that a user does experience losses from identity crime.

Though using ID protection is often up to the individual, more companies are implementing it within their organizations as part of well-rounded risk mitigation strategies to ward off data breaches. It also provides a new angle on training since this type of service sends monthly newsletters to users with information on email scams and how to protect passwords when traveling, among other resources.

Many insurance professionals are jumping on board with ID protection services as users themselves, but are also recommending it to their clients.

“We have many, many brokers who will sign up their brokerage first to try it out, understand it and see how it works, and then roll it out to their clients,” said Henley.

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