Va. (WWBT) – Help is available for anyone impacted by the Richmond Public Schools’ cyber security incident
Officials opened a call center to help with identity and credit monitoring services, which is being offered for free to current and former students, employees and contractor of RPS.
The school system was attacked on Oct 21. School leaders tell us that the ones responsible for the attack claim to have accessed personal information.
The exposed information could include names, addresses and social security numbers.
Even if it is not a problem now, it could be later down the road.
“The danger can come from different sides,” Milos Manic, director of VCU’s Cybersecurity Center and professor of computer science at VCU’s College of Engineering. “Once your confidential information or personal identifiable information is posted, somebody can fairly easily impersonate you.”
Manic said the data breach can potentially impact your identity and wallet.
“Somebody can fairly easily impersonate you,” he said. “What would any of us need to open a loan or buy a house, buy a car.”
If you think you’ve been impact, Manic also suggests doing a credit freeze.
“That takes minutes and once you do it, generally you’re the only who can unfreeze those accounts,” he said.
Also, watch out if anything unusual pops up in your bills.
“Or someone pretending that they are a credible institution, federal, state, or hospital asking for some information over the phone,” said Manic.
If this happens to you, Manic said you should not share any information over the phone and verify your sources.
“If there is a true reason that they’re calling, tell them thank you very much I’ll call you and you call them on an official phone line to make sure that you’re really truly talking to a person that is really representative of that institution,” he said.
Tips Manic hopes will encourage everyone to stay alert.
“We live in a world that is very digital, very connected,” he said. “In general, these are very, very good practices and just stay on top of things, stay on top of notices.
To learn more about the resources being offered by Richmond Public Schools, click here.
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