Medicare reports data breach

In August, Medicare announced that one of its contractors got hacked and the personal information of 612,000 Medicare beneficiaries was stolen.

The security breach put Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver's license numbers, health insurance claims, medical history notes, prescription information and other personally identifiable information at risk.

Anyone whose information was compromised in the breach will be notified by Medicare and offered two years of free credit monitoring.

Even if your data was not stolen in this incident, it is a reminder that many companies and government entities have your personal data and security breaches can happen.

The best approach is to be proactive and take necessary precautions now. This includes checking your credit reports regularly for suspicious activity (annualcreditreport.com) and using strong and unique passwords for all websites. Additionally, be sure to store passwords securely.

Be a fraud fighter. If you can spot a scam, you can stop a scam. Report scams to local law enforcement.