More McHenry County Blog

Along with a couple of million other Chicago area residents, I received a letter from Advocate Medical Group's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin McCune today.

Not being a recent student or employee of McHenry County College, I had to rely on others to obtain its letter.

Both institutions lost control of Social Security numbers and other identifying information.

Advocate's came from the theft of four computers from its Park Ridge office.

MCC's occurred with computer software vender Ellucian mistakenly sent data to three still unnamed Illinois junior colleges.

Below you can see in the third paragraph that Advocate is offering a one-year membership in Experian's ProtectMyID Alert to anyone who decides to sign up.

Signing up gets one

• a free credit report
• daily monitoring of three credit bureaus
• identity theft resolution by a "US-based...agent"
• "Full access to the same personalized assistance from a highly-trained Fraud Resolution Agent even after your initial ProtectMyID membership expires
• $1 million Identity Theft Insurance...that can help you recover certain costs including lost wages, private investigator fees and unauthorized electronic fund transfers 

McHenry County College, on the other hand, suggests contacting

• "the Federal Trade Commission and/or
• "a consumer credit reporting company to obtain information about fraud alerts and security freezes"

Decide for yourself whether the private or the public institution's reaction is preferable.