Page 3 - End of Year 16 Page Booklet QTY 50

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One of the primary messages to consumers and
individuals is that they must understand exactly
what type of personal information/data has been

compromised. Without this specific knowledge,

it is impossible to provide meaningful risk
minimization plans. Consumers must be given
this information in order to understand exactly

what type of identity theft for which they are

most at risk and what the most important action
steps are to take. Consumers play a significant
role in understanding what aspects of their data

have been compromised, thoroughly reading

their data breach notification letter or the
public announcement, but so do companies.

Through a partnership between the ITRC and Futurion LLC, a new tool is being developed that
will take the confusion out of these events for every day consumers. This new tool will launch

in March at One World Identity’s KNOW conference in Las Vegas. In keeping with the ITRC’s
long standing mission of providing best-in-class, no-cost assistance to public regarding identity

crimes and related issues, this tool will be provided to impacted consumers free-of-cost.

The ITRC is not minimizing the responsibility that industry has in protecting data once
it comes into their custody. We, as consumers, expect that any entity housing our data
will be good stewards of that information. The ITRC will continue to advocate for best

practices in cybersecurity; however, we also have to acknowledge that the criminals

are crafty and persistent and even good companies can be victimized by a data breach.

We want industry to understand that robust cybersecurity practices are necessary to minimize

the possibility of a data breach – much effort needs to continue to be concentrated here – but

there is also something more they can do if the worst does occur: provide more transparent
reporting on exactly what type of data was compromised. Every stakeholder needs the
reporting entity to be more granular in their notifications including the

descriptors of the data compromised. Not to shame and blame, but because

this new remediation tool is only as effective as the data we put into it.

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