With news outlets covering stories of data breaches that include SSNs, I have heard from a few people asking about protecting your social security number. Below is guidance from the Social Security Administration. The first thing they mention is creating a MySocialSecurity account. This will prevent others from creating an account with your number. The main website is www.ssa.gov and you can create an account there. Note that creating an account includes them mailing you a paper form, so signing up takes some time.
Another thing you can do is sign up for a monitoring or identity protection service. There are many to choose from and I do not know of them to recommend one over another. I have provided a sample list posted online in one of the recent news articles at the bottom of this email. This is only a partial list. Prices seem to range from $10-$40/month.
You can also sign up for an identity protection PIN with the IRS to prevent someone from filing a tax return with your SSN. https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin Note these have to be obtained annually via your online account, making strong authentication very important.
