You can't always prevent your SSN from falling into the wrong hands, but you can limit what bad actors can do with it.

Checking your credit report at least once ... the Social Security Administration (SSA) immediately. While it's important to know how to detect identity theft, prevention is even better.

A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges that in April 2024, a hacker group called USDoD stole the personal information of 2.9 billion individuals — including social security numbers, addresses ...