The Information Security Office would like to make Case Western Reserve University community members aware of the signs of identity theft and unemployment fraud. Identity theft—the use of another person’s sensitive information, including name, social security number, bank card numbers and more to conduct fraudulent transactions—continues to affect millions of Americans each year, costing billions of dollars in losses.
Data breaches from large corporations, notably the Equifax breach in 2017 and the Marriott Hotel breach in 2018, have resulted in the exposure of personal information of millions of Americans. Data breaches also can occur if you’ve lost a wallet with personal information in it, used a card at a card skimming machine by mistake, clicked on a phishing email, or given personal information to scammers over the phone.While Case Western Reserve University has not been the victim of a data breach, our faculty, staff and students, as members of the general population, are at risk due to data breaches of other institutions. It is important to recognize the signs of identity theft early on and understand what to do if you are a victim. Continue reading this article on the [U]Tech security blog.