South Carolina announced late Monday afternoon that it intends to award a contract for identity theft protection services to a company called CSID, or CSIdentity Corporation. If the contract is finalized, CSID would start providing ID theft protection to state taxpayers whose personal information was stolen by a hacker who broke into the state Department of Revenue's computers last year.
Right now, Experian is providing credit monitoring to taxpayers who signed up for the service after the data breach. Experian decided not to pursue the new contract, but it has been sending emails to South Carolinians who signed up, offering to continue its coverage, at a cost to each taxpayer of $11.88 for a year. The Experian coverage will end October 24th for the first people who enrolled.
This new service is being paid for by the state. The contract is for a maximum of $8.5 million. It could be less if fewer people sign up. The state has the option to renew the contract for up to four more years, at a cost of no more than $6.5 million a year.
State officials say the new contract will provide you with more protection. Experian is currently providing daily monitoring of all three credit bureaus, and also provides $1 million in ID theft insurance and lifetime ID theft resolution services.
CSID will monitor only one of the three credit bureaus, Transunion. But state officials say almost all credit issuers and banks report to all three credit bureaus, so monitoring only one of them is usually sufficient.
CSID will also offer $1 million of ID theft insurance and full ID theft resolution services. It will provide that ID theft resolution service to any South Carolina taxpayers whose information was stolen, even if they don't enroll in CSID's ID theft protection.