Online Shopping and Identity Theft

I know that shopping online is a calculated risk. So is banking online, for that matter. I don’t believe I do an excessive amount of shopping and banking online, nor am I careless with my personal information. So why is it that approximately every six months I receive a notice telling me that merchant ABC or that bank XYZ has had Important Numbers (combined with personal information) stolen?

Free credit monitoring is problematic because companies only offer a minimal amount of problem solving: “here’s six month’s of free credit monitoring. You need to self-police your account in case of identity theft. If your identity has been stolen? Well, tough luck buddy, because we aren’t liable for anything after throwing you the free credit monitoring service.” Are they really off the hook, if your identity has been stolen? While I have not had my identity stolen (yet), the number of notices I receive tells me my chances are high.

Many of the conventional things customers are advised to do are useless. I use “trusted merchants” online, verifying they are a well-known merchant, have SSL, a good online reputation and no bad certs, only to find they reported a laptop stolen from their premises (with unencrypted sensitive data on said computer, no less)! I use “trusted banks,” only to read that they had a security breach on one their servers (which went unreported to customers for three months), where Gigabytes of account numbers and transaction data was downloaded.

What I would consider these (gratis) services as “going above and beyond expectations” when a possible security breach has occurred:

• Credit score (FICO or equivalent)
• Credit report (reported by Equifax, TransUnion or Experian)
• One year of credit monitoring (from one of the big 3)
• Identity theft insurance (minimum of $10,000)
• Access to legal resources if identity has been stolen

An old adage advises that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This is my version of an adequate pound of cure, which most companies are not offering. What do you think? Am I being excessive or is this a fair request?