Published: September 23, 2023 on our newsletter Security Fraud News & Alerts Newsletter.
It’s difficult knowing there are people out there who cannot afford adequate food or are somehow food insecure. Thankfully, there are organizations available to help those very people get food. Mom’s Meals is one such organization. It delivers food to people with chronic health conditions. According to the USDA, there are 34 million food-insecure people in the United States. Sadly, Mom’s announced that it was a victim of a data breach that affected over 1.2 million individuals who received Mom’s Meals packages.
Mom’s Meals parent company, PurFoods confirmed the data breach and that it happened between January 16 and February 22. In a notice, PurFoods noted that the information included personal information and protected health information. It also did not rule out the possibility that ransomware had something to do with the intrusion.
Not only did this breach affect customers, but it also impacted some employees (both current and former), as well as some contractors who are or were working for the organization.
Affected individuals have been provided with a dedicated customer service line through Kroll. They’ve also been offered complimentary credit monitoring services for one year. While it’s a good idea to use these services when offered, it’s important to remember that credit monitoring does not mean your credit is protected in any way. What these services do is monitor any activity on your credit reports, but they don’t stop fraud. They will notify you and it’s up to you to take action. If you do get a notification, you can get a bit ahead of the criminals and prevent it from happening or from getting worse by addressing it right away.
If you don’t need anyone to have or to get access to your credit reports, it’s recommended that you freeze them. You can freeze and unfreeze them at any time. You just have to do it with all three of the major credit reporting bureaus individually. They cannot charge you for the service, but watch for the fine print that includes other services they all provide for a fee. However, just freezing and unfreezing the access should be at no charge.
And while you’re freezing your credit and/or signing up for credit monitoring, take a minute to visit annualcreditreport.com and get your credit report for free. You can get one every year from each of the three agencies. Instead of getting them all at once, get one every 4 months to spread it out. Then you can address issues quicker than if you just see it once a year.
There are other ways to get your credit report too. For example, if you’re denied credit or through some payment card companies. However, that is the official website that’s authorized by the federal government.
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