AARP: Protect Your Farm, Family, Self From Dark Web

More than 800 data breaches released personal information to the dark web last year exposing two billion records, including those of farms and rural residents.  With information found on the dark web, thieves can steal money from your farm or open new accounts, destroying your finances.

“Having farm or business information on the dark web can be a disaster, scammers will ruin your business quickly" said AARP’s Sean Voskuhl.  "Thieves will use your personal information to set up new credit cards with a fake address.  And the only clue of any trouble would be found in your credit report.  Thankfully there are steps to take that can safe guard your information to make in harder for thieves to steal from you.”

The first step of protecting your farm or personal records from identity theft, Voskuhl added, is making sure you have strong passwords for online accounts.  Check website addresses for "https" which indicates the site is secure.  Also, he said you need to monitor your personal and farm accounts as well as your credit diligently.

“You can get a free credit report once a year from AnnualCreditReport.com.  Also, consider freezing your credit, and use online banking to monitor all accounts diligently.  And you can get alerts of new tactics that identity thieves use on the AARP's website.”

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