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We have engaged FORVIS, LLP (Attn: Jeff Rosno, 1801 California Street , Ste. 2900, Denver, CO 80202) to perform member verifications. Kindly compare the balance of your accounts on your December 2022 statement WITH YOUR RECORDS. If balances do not agree, please address your discrepancies directly to FORVIS, LLP. Include your name, truncated account number, and an explanation of the difference noted.  A reply is not considered necessary unless a difference is noted.

Friday, March 15: the Kirtland CU branch on KAFB is CLOSED. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please visit our nearest Gibson branch for assistance.

Kirtland Credit Union will never ask you to provide, update, or verify personal or account information through an unsolicited email, phone call, or text message. If you receive an unsolicited email, phone call, or text message, DO NOT RESPOND. Notify us at (505) 254-4369 or 1-800-880-5328.

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Concerned about how a government shutdown may impact you? Call us at 1.800.880.5328 to discuss your needs.

Welcome To The Insighter!

Explore the latest happenings at Kirtland CU and learn about important topics from around the financial world. Here’s your insight! To learn about retirements, investments and financial planning, check out Invested now.

Illuminating the Dark Web

By Ashleigh, K-Staff

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It’s a buzz term that gets thrown around during discussions of data breaches and identity theft— the “dark web”.

You may have even seen advertisements for services that are supposed to alert you—or even claim to be able to remove your information—when your information is discovered there. But what is the dark web, and how can you keep yourself safe if your information ends up on one of these sites?

The dark web is a network of websites that can only be accessed with a special browser that renders the user anonymous and untraceable. Sites on the dark web make up about 3% of all websites and while not every site accessible on the dark web deals in illicit activity, it’s easy to see the appeal for an identity thief. After a data breach, information often floods the dark web, offered up for sale as a bundle of information for as little as $10 per bundle.

Many services will offer to scan the dark web for your information. Finding it is one thing; eliminating it is another. The former will allow you to take action to protect yourself. The latter is all but impossible.

Beware any service offering to scan the entire dark web

Because that’s impossible. The ever-shifting landscape of the dark web makes it impossible to crawl every site. One of the major differences between the normal web and the dark web, besides the multiple re-routes built between a user and a site, is the suffix of the sites themselves: sites on the dark web often end in .onion and have an incomprehensible string of numbers and letters before it. The last count of onion sites according to a 2017 Vice article was 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176. And it’s not unusual for a site to appear for 12 hours and then vanish. We can’t even count these sites accurately, never mind crawl them in any kind of reliable fashion.

What a site will do to “scan” for your information is likely to look at the latest data dumps: files of information that do often end up on the dark web.

If you do a scan, and your information is found on the dark web, here are a few things to remember.

  • No service can erase your information. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. You should be leery of any service offering to erase your information.
  • Consider account alerts. Early detection of fraudulent activity can help you limit losses.
  • Mitigation is the name of the game. If you are alerted that your information is on the dark web, the best idea is to freeze your credit to limit fraudulent activity with your social security number. You should also order new credit and debit cards.
  • Monitor your credit frequently. Look for any unusual activity so you can take swift action.
  • Practice good security hygiene. Keep your data and passwords as private as possible. Read here to find out more.

Don't Be a Victim!

You need to know about credit union impersonation scams so you can avoid becoming a victim of these nefarious tactics.

Online, Mobile, and Telephone Banking will be unavailable on Sunday, December 17 from 12:00-5:00 a.m. MST.