SHALIMAR — The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office is working with the Secret Service and Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the computer hacking of personal information involving a security breach at Northwest Florida State College.
The investigation is expected to be intensive and time-consuming. In the meantime, the OCSO wants to share the following educational materials and attached articles with those who could be potential victims of this crime, or others looking to protect themselves from identity theft.
•Flag your credit reports. Call the nationwide credit reporting companies and ask for a fraud alert on your credit report. Call Equifax, 1-800-525-6285; Experian, 1-888-397-3742; or TransUnion 1-800-680-7289.
•Order your credit reports. Each company’s credit report is slightly different, so order a report from each company. Read your reports carefully to see if the information is correct. If you see mistakes, contact the credit reporting company.
•Create an identity theft report. An identity theft report can help you get fraudulent information removed from your credit report, stop a company from collecting debts caused by identity theft, and get information about accounts a thief opened in your name. To create an identity theft report, file a complaint with the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint or 1-877-438-4338; TTY: 1-866-653-4261. Your completed complaint is called an FTC Affidavit.
•Use the IC3 website. The IC3 was established as a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center to receive Internet-related criminal complaints and to further research, develop, and refer the criminal complaints to federal, state, local or international law enforcement and/or regulatory agencies for any investigation they deem to be appropriate.
The IC3 was intended, and continues to emphasize, serving the broader law enforcement community to include federal, as well as state, local, and international agencies, which are combating Internet crime and, in many cases, participating in Cyber Crime Task Forces.
The IC3 website is www.ic3.gov.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Sheriff's Office offers tips to NWFSC computer hacking victims