5 Million CheckFree Consumers Warned Against Identity Theft Exposure

With the new year's first major security breach, CheckFree issued
a consumer disclosure recently warning more consumers were
negatively impacted than originally thought.

Computer hackers operating in the Ukraine effectively redirected
CheckFree's web traffic to illegal computer servers.

"...because the company lost control of its Web domains, it
doesn't know exactly who was hit. And so it must warn a
much larger number of customers."

While there are indications the exposure could have been much
worse, consumers should be wary as CheckFree holds a significant
reach within the banking community for bill payment services:

"...wouldn't say what banks were affected by the hack, but
the majority of these five million customers were CheckFree's
own users, she said. In total, about 42 million customers
access CheckFree's bill payment site..."

So, our tip for today is to contact your bank immediately if you
are a user of CheckFree's bill payment services. Find out if your
accounts exhibit any potentially fraudulent activity.

Finally, as major identity theft security breaches such as this one
tend to further develop over time, check back with us for updates
as we continue to provide free, anonymous tips to prevent id theft.