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Free credit monitoring comes to an end in South Carolina; here's what you can do

It's been six years since the state department of revenue was hacked. The personal information of more than 4 million South Carolina taxpayers & businesses was stolen.

Columbia, SC - (WLTX) It's been six years since the state department of revenue was hacked. The personal information of more than 4 million South Carolina taxpayers & businesses was stolen.

Experts said it was the largest cyber-attack against a state tax agency in the nation.At the time - the state offered fraud protection to those who have been affected. That contract for free credit monitoring protection ended for South Carolina residents on Wednesday.

The free credit protection from CSID was part of a five-year contract. It was negotiated by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board in 2013. Carri Grube Lybarker administrator for the south Carolina department of consumer affairs discusses some of the best ways to protect your credit. One thing Lybarker suggest is to freeze your credit report. She says, "What happens when its frozen is that if you went to apply for a loan or to get a new cellphone, if they went to pull your credit report they couldn't. It would say security freeze in place until you thaw it. So you thaw it for a specified time so they can take a look at it and then you freeze it again."

Consumer affairs identify theft unit says since 2012 there have been nearly 300 security breaches reported effecting millions of people in the state and hitting some residents on multiple occasion.

Lybarker says it's imperative for one to ask questions. She says, "Whenever you're giving your personal information over to someone whether it's financial or social security you have to ask why they need it what are they going to do with it how will they protect it and how will they destroy it."

Lybarker also list a few general practices that one could follow to secure their information.

1. Monitor your statements. Thieves can use your information anyway you can so it isn't just money they can go get jobs, get medical benefits.

2. Looking at your credit report. You get a free credit report annually you can go to creditreport.com and go through it with a fine tooth comb and especially look at the identifying information which could contain addresses which thieves could use to get accounts.

3. Consider a security freeze it's that proactive measure you can take to put that credit report on lock down so thieves cannot get access to products or services where credit reports are needed.

With holiday shopping almost underway consumer affairs also wants people to monitor how much they use their debit card. They say when it comes to protecting your finances it's always safer to use a credit over debit. If a debit card is compromised money can be taken out of your account and it could potentially take several weeks for the bank to replace the funds stolen.

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