Strategies for Preventing Identity Theft

Introduction to identity theft

Identity theft is a widespread cybercrime that impacts individuals and businesses differently. For individuals, stolen credentials can lead to fraudulent financial transactions or identity fraud. For businesses, identity-based attacks target employees and executives to infiltrate corporate networks and exfiltrate sensitive data. It involves the unauthorized use of personal or sensitive information to commit fraud or other crimes. For individuals, this might mean stolen credit card details or a compromised identity. For organizations, it could lead to leaked customer data, reputational damage, and costly compliance violations.

Cybercriminals are finding more sophisticated ways to exploit personal and organizational data. With stolen identities, they can open fraudulent accounts, access sensitive systems, or launch phishing attacks that compromise business environments. With identity-based attacks increasing, organizations must move beyond traditional protection measures and adopt real-time identity threat detection to prevent compromised credentials from leading to system breaches.

Protecting personal information and corporate identities

Preventing identity theft begins with protecting sensitive information—both for individuals and organizations. While individuals can take steps to safeguard their personal data, businesses must implement policies and technologies to secure employee and customer information. 

Avoid sharing sensitive data unnecessarily

For individuals: Always question why your Social Security number, birthdate, or other sensitive details are being requested. If it’s not mandatory, avoid sharing it, especially online. Verify the legitimacy of the person or organization requesting your information.

For businesses: Collect only the sensitive data you truly need to minimize exposure and liability. Sensitive customer or employee information, such as Social Security numbers or payment details, should only be stored if absolutely necessary. Implement access controls to ensure only authorized personnel can view this information.

Shred physical documents containing sensitive information before disposal

For individuals: Dispose of old bank statements, tax forms, and any document with personal details by using a cross-cut shredder. This eliminates the risk of dumpster-diving thieves accessing your data.

For businesses: Establish a document retention and disposal policy for all departments. Partner with secure shredding services to properly destroy sensitive physical documents like employee files, customer contracts, or financial records. Regularly audit your document handling practices to ensure compliance with privacy regulations.

Use encrypted connections (VPNs) when accessing the internet on public Wi-Fi

For individuals: Avoid accessing sensitive accounts—like online banking or email—when connected to public Wi-Fi. If you must use public Wi-Fi, always use a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your connection and shield your data.

For businesses: Enforce secure access policies for remote employees by requiring corporate-managed VPNs, Zero Trust access models, or secure enterprise browsers to prevent credential theft from compromised networks. Additionally, ensure that all devices used to access company systems, including employee-owned devices, adhere to your organization’s cybersecurity policies.

Strengthening online security

Online security is one of the first lines of defense against identity theft. By adopting and reinforcing your online security practices, you can significantly reduce the risk of becoming a victim.

Create strong practices for accessing accounts

For individuals: Use phishing-resistant authentication whenever possible, such as passkeys or hardware security keys. If using passwords, ensure they are unique and stored in a password manager to reduce exposure to credential theft. Enable phishing-resistant MFA (such as FIDO2 security keys or certificate-based authentication) whenever possible, as traditional SMS or app-based MFA can be bypassed by adversaries using social engineering or MFA fatigue attacks. This ensures that even if your password is compromised, your account will remain secure.

For businesses: Implement a company-wide password policy that enforces strong password creation and regular updates. Require MFA for all employee accounts, particularly for accessing sensitive systems or customer data. It’s also recommended to provide your employees with a password manager tool to reduce the risk of weak or reused passwords.

Be cautious of links in emails

For individuals: Cybercriminals often use phishing emails to trick you into revealing personal information or downloading malware. Be skeptical of unsolicited messages, especially those urging you to take immediate action. Verify the sender’s email address and avoid clicking on links or attachments from unknown sources.

For businesses: Conduct regular employee security awareness training on recognizing phishing attempts. Use AI-driven phishing detection tools to automate email filtering and reduce reliance on employee judgment alone. Simulated phishing tests should be combined with real-time monitoring of compromised credentials to proactively stop credential theft before it’s exploited. Use email security tools to flag and filter out phishing attempts before they reach your employees’ inboxes.

Regularly update software to patch security vulnerabilities

For individuals: Outdated software is a common entry point for hackers. Keep your devices and applications up to date by enabling automatic updates. This ensures you’re protected against the latest vulnerabilities.

For businesses: Establish a vulnerability management process to ensure all your systems, applications, and devices are consistently updated and patched. Use a strong endpoint management solution to monitor and enforce compliance across devices in your network.

Monitoring financial activity

Keeping a close eye on financial transactions is essential for detecting and responding to identity theft early.

Regularly review bank and credit card statements

For individuals: Carefully review your monthly bank and credit card statements for any unfamiliar charges. Report suspicious transactions to your bank or credit card provider immediately to minimize potential losses.

For businesses: Implement AI-driven fraud detection tools to monitor transactions in real time and detect anomalies. These tools analyze transaction patterns, device usage, and behavioral biometrics to flag suspicious activity before financial damage occurs.

Set up account alerts to track spending and changes

For individuals: Most banks and credit card providers allow you to set up alerts for transactions over a certain dollar amount, unusual spending locations, or changes to your account information. These alerts can help you quickly catch suspicious activity.

For businesses: Enable transaction monitoring and alerts on your corporate financial accounts. Use financial management software to track spending and flag unusual activity.

Periodically check credit reports

For individuals: Request free annual credit reports from major credit bureaus (e.g., Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to ensure no unauthorized accounts have been opened in your name. You can also freeze your credit to prevent new accounts from being opened in your name, which adds an extra layer of protection against identity theft.

For businesses: Monitor your business credit report for discrepancies, such as unauthorized loans or accounts opened under your company’s name. This helps protect your business’s financial reputation.

Leveraging identity theft protection services

Proactive identity monitoring and recovery services can provide an added layer of protection against identity theft for both individuals and businesses.

Use services that monitor the dark web for leaked personal data

For individuals: Identity theft protection services can scan the dark web for your personal information, such as Social Security numbers or passwords. Early alerts can help you take action before criminals exploit your data.

For businesses: Invest in cybersecurity tools that monitor the dark web for exposed employee credentials, customer information, or proprietary data. Use these insights to reinforce your security measures and promptly notify affected individuals.

Enroll in credit monitoring programs for early detection of potential threats

For individuals: Credit monitoring services notify you of changes to your credit file, such as new accounts or credit inquiries, so you can respond quickly to suspicious activity.

For businesses: Implement business identity monitoring to detect unauthorized domain registrations, fraudulent vendor accounts, or impersonation attempts, which can be precursors to business email compromise (BEC) and executive phishing attacks.

Explore insurance options to cover identity theft-related costs

For individuals: Identity theft insurance can help cover expenses like legal fees, lost wages, and other costs associated with recovering your identity.

For businesses: Consider cyber liability insurance, which can help cover the costs of a data breach, including legal fees, notification costs, and recovery efforts.

How CrowdStrike enhances identity protection

As identity-based attacks—such as credential theft, MFA bypass, and session hijacking—continue to rise, organizations must go beyond traditional IAM controls to detect and stop identity threats in real time. Choosing the right security partner is critical. With CrowdStrike Falcon® Identity Threat Protection, you gain the insights and capabilities needed to effectively detect, mitigate, and respond to identity-based threats at scale.

Falcon Identity Protection delivers unified visibility, detection, and response for identities everywhere — spanning on-premises Active Directory, cloud identity providers like Entra ID and Okta, and SaaS applications. By eliminating silos, it provides a single, holistic view of attack paths across the entire adversary toolkit ensuring full visibility, complete control, and confidence to manage and protect identities across your environment. 

And with the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform, your team can leverage one unified platform to seamlessly oversee every layer of security — from identity threat detection and response (ITDR) and endpoint to cloud, SaaS security posture management (SSPM) and next-gen security information and event management (SIEM) — all through one agent and one console.

Conclusion

Preventing identity theft requires vigilance, proactive measures, and the adoption of advanced security solutions. By safeguarding personal data, monitoring financial activity, and strengthening online defenses, individuals can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to identity theft.

CrowdStrike is at the forefront of identity protection, offering industry-leading solutions like Falcon Identity Threat Detection to help individuals and organizations detect and respond to identity threats in real time. From advanced monitoring to robust integrations with IAM systems, CrowdStrike bridges the gap between IAM and security by offering real-time identity threat detection (ITDR), adversary intelligence, and continuous authentication monitoring. This ensures that identities remain protected even if credentials are compromised.

Take the next step to protect your personal and organizational data. Learn more about CrowdStrike’s identity protection solutions today by visiting CrowdStrike Identity Protection.