Epsilon & PlayStation Network Security Recommendations

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I amongst the 70 million have been effected by the PlayStation Network hack that took place between April 17th and April 19th. While there isn't much we can do right now there are some steps you may want to consider taking to protect your own security and financial well being. I'm sure some would like to think they are extreme but after the security breach with  Epsilon recently and now this there is no good reason to take chances.

I will state clearly I am not an information security professional. I have however been working in the Information Technology industry for 13(going on 14) years. I've suffered similar security breaches before and I've heard of them happening many times before. I am also a member of the US Military who under goes security briefings anually on protection of data and while deployed served my section as the Information Management Officer. While my primary role is not information security I have enough experience to know that the bottom line is that information security is every ones problem. What follows are some recommendations. Some vital, some, may be only if you are paranoid.

First and fore most purchases online can only be made if all the pieces of information line up. Your online account information(username & password), your card/account number, your PII or Personally Identifiable Information, and typically a physical marker for your card(that 3 digit number on the back). So your first line of defense against security breaches that have all ready taken place is to change as much of this information as possible.