Imagine you’re applying for a new credit card for a major purchase, and as the confirmation page loads, you see in great big bold letters:

“We’re sorry, your application can’t be approved at this time.”

You’re shocked, because you barely use your credit and almost never carry a balance, so you can’t think of a reason you would have been denied. Assuming it must be a simple mistake, you call the credit card company and you’re blindsided when they tell you that you have too much debt.

This doesn’t make any sense, and you immediately log in to check your balances but everything looks normal, so you pull your credit report and can’t believe what you see—a horrifying $27,573 balance on a credit card that you don’t recognize. You think, “OK, this is definitely a mistake that’s going to get cleared up,” as your heart rate skyrockets. You wonder how this could have happened, and then it hits you as you hear the TV news anchor announce the news that ties everything together…

Hackers got away with 2.9 billion records from the Social Security Administration—including social security numbers.

Your heart drops, because your credit is shot now thanks to identity theft and you don't know what to do next.

The bad news is if you got caught up in this data breach, it will likely take more time than you’d like to fix this, but the good news is that in cases of identity theft, the fraudulent entries on your credit report will be removed by the credit bureaus if you take the necessary steps to prove they aren’t yours.

But more importantly, this should be the last reminder you need to lock your credit reports, and from now on, only unlock them when you are actively applying for credit. (And of course, make sure you lock them again immediately afterwards.) Doing that will eliminate almost all risk of identity theft.

If you happen to be one of the millions of Americans who had their data stolen in the Social Security Administration breach, the advice  I’m about to share will give you a step by step action plan to remove fraudulent entries from your credit report, repair your credit, and lock it down so this won’t happen to you again in the future.

Step 1: Pull your credit report from all 3 bureaus

The first step is to see if you’re already a victim of identity theft because of this breach by pulling a full credit report from Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.

Rather than going to each one separately though, you can pull a 3 bureau report from fundandgrowcreditservices.com. This will provide the exact same information, at a more cost effective price. While you’re at it, you should also set up credit monitoring so you’ll immediately be alerted of any changes to your credit report.

This is a critical first step because it shows you exactly what is on your credit report, and by monitoring it going forward, you’ll spot issues before they can impact you.

Step 2: File a police report if you find any fraudulent accounts

In order to dispute any fraudulent accounts, which you’ll do in the next step, you’ll need to first contact your local law enforcement agency and file a police report.

They will file the paperwork to begin their investigation, and then provide you with a report number. Now obviously, they won’t be able to figure out who stole your identity right away—it may take weeks or months, and in some cases, they may even never figure it out. That’s not your problem, because as long as it’s identity theft, you won’t be responsible for the fraudulent debt.

You will just need the police report number to file your disputes with the credit bureaus.

Step 3: Dispute all fraudulent accounts with each credit bureau

You will need to contact each bureau, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, separately and file your dispute, along with a police report number.

Once it’s in their hands, they will directly contact the law enforcement agency that’s responsible for investigating it to verify that it is in fact identity theft. You most likely won’t have to do anything from here, unless they reach back out to request additional information.

Typically, the investigation could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, and once it’s complete, the bureaus will notify you of the outcome. In cases of identity theft, this means they will remove that account from your credit report.

I want to point out that you’ll need to be patient here. I’ve seen cases where people keep filing the same disputes repeatedly

Step 4: Lock down your security

I’ve already mentioned locking your credit profiles, so that should already be done. Your next move is to harden your credentials by using a strong alphanumeric password, and if possible, include special characters.

This is the bare minimum.

Wherever possible, you should also implement 2FA or some other authentication protocol. If you’re not tech savvy, 2FA is 2-Factor Authentication, a technology that requires you to verify who you are through a secondary device, like your smartphone or a special keyfob. This adds another layer of security, and it’s an especially tough one because a hacker needs both your credentials and your device.

It’s important to note that you should implement this on all accounts, but especially:

• Banking accounts
• Credit accounts
• Retirement accounts
• Email accounts
• Phone accounts

*Email and phone accounts are especially important because they can give a hacker access to everything else.

Closing thoughts on protecting your credit score today…

While it’s important to implement security measures to protect your personal information, it’s just as important to understand that realistically, there is no such thing as absolute security.

This data breach is just one of many recent examples proving that no company or organization is capable of protecting its data 100% of the time. This includes our military and intelligence organizations, which have cybersecurity budgets that rival the budgets of most countries, and yet have still been hacked several times over the past several years.

This means that in addition to being proactive about security, you also need to actively monitor your credit report at all three bureaus,

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Amanda Webster is the COO of Fund&Grow, which helps entrepreneurs get the business credit they need to run and scale their companies. She is recognized as one of the leading experts in the industry, and is regularly asked to speak on the topic on stage and in the media.