Steve Weisman, senior lecturer at Bentley University and a leading expert on cyber security, is available to comment on the massive hack of employee data on at least four million present and former federal employees from The Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

According to Weisman, the advice for present and former federal employees is the same as for any victim of a similar data breach:

• Check your credit report for free through annualcreditreport.com to see if damage has already been done.
• “Remember, in this data breach as with most data breaches, the damage has gone on for some time before it is discovered and made public.”
• Put a credit freeze on your credit report so that someone with your Social Security number will not be able to access your credit report to establish credit in your name.
• Change user names and passwords for your accounts and make sure that you use unique passwords for every account that you have.
• Monitor your bank accounts, investment accounts and credit card accounts for fraudulent use. 
• You may wish to close accounts and open new ones for extra protection. 

To reach Professor Weisman after-hours: 413-253-4085 or sweisman@bentley.edu