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It's National Protect Your Identity Week, so each day we'll post an educational article with tips on how to better understand identity theft and how to reduce your risk of it occurring.

There is no guarantee that you won't ever become a victim of identity theft, but you can reduce your own risk and minimize the damage if a problem occurs by make it more difficult for identity thieves to access your information. Here are steps that if followed could help reduce the risk of you becoming an identity theft victim:

Use Strong Passwords
Using strong passwords that contain a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols will help reduce risk. Avoid using easily hacked passwords and PINs, such as single words in the dictionary and recognizable identifiers that include the last four digits of your SSN, your date of birth, house number, pet names, mother's maiden name, series of consecutive numbers and so on.

Consider using mnemonics for your passwords. The first letter of each word, including numbers and symbols, would create your password.

Keep Personal Information Personal
Decline phone, email or text requests for personal information or your credit card number unless you initiated the contact because they could be scams. Before you share any personal information, confirm that you are dealing with a legitimate company or institution. Instead of copying and pasting the site URL, type it in the address line or do a search for the company website. You can also call customer service using a phone number that comes from a reputable source, like a statement, the back of a credit/debit card or the phonebook.

If you need to send a message containing sensitive, confidential information to Alliant about your account, you can do this through the secure message function within Alliant Online Banking. These messages are sent internally and are 100% secure. All sensitive data will be removed from your original message before we reply. For your own protection, Alliant recommends that you never send personal or account information through regular email to us or to any other financial institution or company.

At Alliant, we will never initiate a contact to solicit members for personal information. Contact us immediately if you think unauthorized access or fraud has occurred in connection with your Alliant Credit Union accounts at 800-328-1935 (24/7).

Review Your Credit Report
Request a copy of your credit report and review if for unauthorized accounts on a regular basis. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) requires each major credit bureau (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to provide one free credit report annually to consumers who request a copy. You can order your credit report for free from www.annualcreditreport.com, the only website authorized by the U.S. government to provide reports from the three major bureaus.

At Alliant, we're committed to protecting your financial privacy. We use advanced security to safeguard our members' personal information by restricting access and training employees in the importance of confidentiality and member privacy by maintaining physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations and leading industry practices.

Learn more about National Protect Your Identity Week.

You may also be interested in:

• Identify Identity Theft Threats
• Prevent Identity Theft
• Detecting & Recovering From Identity Theft

Alliant Credit Union will never solicit you for personal information, such as account number, credit/debit card numbers, passwords or PINs. Contact us immediately if you think unauthorized access or fraud has occurred in connection with your Alliant Credit Union accounts at 800-328-1935 (24/7). To learn more about Alliant's security and to stay updated on fraud alerts, visit Security.

Sources: FTC.gov, CUNA