Cyberlife Security in the Current Climate

[eleanorigby]

Given the current malevolent mayhem occurring in our nation's capitol, I have frozen my credit reports, but have also heard rumors of blocking my social security number.

I have found the SSA's phone number to do so, but has anyone done this? I'd like to know more about it.

And what steps have you taken (if any) to mitigate risk for your money? I've seen on social media everything from "I'm going off grid" to "I'm closing my bank accounts"(no mention of what they do with the funds in those accounts.

Some of this is panic/foolishness, but given the circumstances, I cannot mock these people.

What are you doing? I already pay cash for almost everything; I have my debt card locked (due to fraud recently, which was reversed for me, thank goodness), and have all manner of alerts on my credit cards.

I feel like we are in some ways, unwitting sitting ducks...

[Diamonds02]

Sounds like you’re on the right track regarding your financial info.

What many people mean by taking their money off the grid is literally cashing out and putting their funds in a large fireproof safe. And converting some of that money into silver and gold. And into crypto, if they swing that way. Also, perhaps moving their money to an offshore bank. Obviously, those things can rack up different risks. But, I wouldn’t be putting all of my eggs in one basket though. I would be spreading my savings everywhere.

As for other cybersecurity stuff, probably a good idea to switch to Signal messaging app. SMS/texting is not encrypted and be easily intercepted by the wrong people. Facebook messenger, what’s app, etc are even worse. Might be a good idea to block location tracking too, under certain circumstances.