Technologies

Best Identity Theft Protection and Monitoring Services for 2023

Got a hunch that someone’s ruining your credit? These identity theft protection services can help you find out — and fight back.

Identity theft is no joke: It’s a serious threat with the potential to destroy your entire life if you aren’t careful. And according to the Identity Theft Research Center, these cybercrimes are on the rise, with data compromises increasing by 68% in 2021 alone. This is why you need to protect yourself with one of the best identity theft protection services available.

Falling victim to one of these crooks could result in your credit being directly attacked. They might even commit other crimes and cause additional problems with your stolen identity. Your Social Security number, bank account and more are at risk, which is why you need to be proactive in protecting yourself.

The best way to safeguard your personal information is to make use of the best identity theft protection services to suit your needs. These services typically offer ID protection, credit monitoring and more to keep your sensitive data away from prying eyes. Our top picks for the best identity theft protection and monitoring services can help safeguard your identity and proactively monitor suspicious activity and assist with recovery if you become a victim of a data breach.

ID theft protection is only going to become more essential. In 2019 alone, there were more than 13 million US identity fraud cases, with victims losing nearly $17 billion, along with untold damage to credit reports. The 2017 Equifax breach was the icing on a nasty cake — one that got even worse in the following years. One of the biggest 2020 data breaches was the Marriott hack, which affected over 5 million customers. That followed an earlier breach of Marriott’s Starwood reservation system, in which the personal information of more than 380 million guests was compromised, including more than 5 million passport numbers
.

In this directory, we’ll look at some of the best options for helping you manage and protect your identity at various price levels. We’ll also explain the difference between an identity theft protection company and a credit monitoring service. Before we get started, keep in mind that you don’t have to spend $10 to $30 a month for the best identity theft protection service. The US government offers IdentityTheft.gov, an identity restoration service that can help a victim report and recover from identity theft.

Read more: How to Prevent Identity Theft

We’ll jump straight to the top choices for the best identity theft protection service options for ID monitoring, credit monitoring and more. Keep reading to review additional important information and facts about ID theft and ID protection. This list is updated frequently.

How much? Pricing compared
Not recommended: Equifax and TrustedID
Identity theft: What you need to know

What about Equifax and TrustedID?

Ah, Equifax. If you already have an ID monitoring service, it may well be because of this company, which is the poster child for bad security. One of the big three credit reporting agencies, Equifax had no less than five major data breaches in 2017, affecting nearly every American who has a credit history. In the months that followed, we learned that things may have somehow even been worse than originally known.

And the company’s ham-fisted response to each data breach made matters worse: At one point, the company was directing users to a fake help site. And the site it set up to provide free credit account monitoring after the data breach was originally also vulnerable to hackers.

Heads rolled, executives left, and the company’s reputation is in tatters. And yet, thanks to a tepid response from the federal government, it’s unclear if anything has really changed. Equifax remains one of three major companies — Experian and TransUnion being the other two — that pass judgment on whether we’re all credit-worthy.

For better or worse, many people took advantage of Equifax’s offer of a free year’s membership to TrustedID, its commercial identity theft service. But that offer — originally available to anyone with a Social Security number — has ended. (It required that you register by Jan. 31, 2018.)

The service provides a copy of your Equifax credit report, a lock on your Equifax data by third parties (with some exceptions), credit monitoring from all three credit bureaus, monitoring of your SSN on what Equifax calls «suspicious» websites and a very limited $1 million identity theft insurance policy.

We understand if you took advantage of the offer while it was free. That said, we just can’t recommend doing business with a company that has demonstrated such contempt for security protocols — let alone customers. Any of the alternative protection services listed above would be a better option.

Pricing compared

The base prices of each service are presented below, from lowest to highest. Note that the more expensive ones almost always offer additional perks, such as more frequent credit reports from credit bureaus.

*Offers 60-day money back guarantee.

Identity theft: What you need to know

These are some key things to keep in mind about the best identity theft protection and ID monitoring services.

Early detection is key. If you’re signing up for one of these protection services, it’s less about preventing the initial breach and saving you from being a victim of identity theft — that’s somewhat out of your hands, unfortunately. Instead, the best identity theft protection is about getting a heads-up as soon as possible on suspicious activity to prevent you from needing to do a credit freeze or more to stop an identity thief. Whether your credit card has charges on it you never incurred, or you suddenly discover that loan collectors are trying to collect amounts you never borrowed, thanks to thieves halfway across the country — or thieves halfway around the world — who opened a credit card or applied for a loan in your name, seeing the suspicious activity early on is the name of the game. The scary fact is that these breaches can cost you a lot of money and identity theft monitoring can alert you to a problem before it becomes too big to handle.

Knowing how your personal information is being used is a big step to keeping yourself safe. There are identity theft protection companies that can help you monitor your personal information, get notified if your accounts and personal information are being misused by thieves and if you should get a credit freeze, and even get you reimbursement after the fact.

None of these protection services will monitor your actual banking activity. I have long recommended a way to protect yourself from becoming a victim of most banking fraud, which is to examine all your accounts once a week. It’s a bit of a pain, but just in my family, we’ve found numerous fraudulent activities and charges over the years. By doing this practice regularly, we’ve saved thousands of dollars. Consumer Reports recommends you do all your own monitoring, too.

That said, if you’re not the type of person who is willing or able to take the time to do the constant due diligence necessary to protect your identity, some of these protection services can help.

Read the fine print. Finally, because each of these protection services offers vastly different terms and conditions, we’ve included an easy link to each company’s terms of service. Be sure to take the time to read all of their fine print before you sign up for another monthly or yearly fee.

More security and internet recommendations

Technologies

I Tried the New McDonaldland Meal for Adults, With Its Bizarre Pink and Blue Shake

Instead of a toy, the adult-aimed meal includes a collectible tin filled with postcards and stickers, honoring one of McD’s retro mascots.

McDonald’s continues to capitalize on the love of its customers for the company’s goofy history. Recently, Happy Meals included McDonald’s-themed toys — such as drink machines, fryers and trays with food on them — delivered in mini-Happy Meal boxes. And the much-longed-for Snack Wraps finally returned after a viral fan campaign. Now, McDonald’s has introduced the McDonaldland Meal, which goes straight after that market of adults who have a nostalgic feeling for the Golden Arches. And it comes with a shake in colors like you’ve never seen before.

The McDonaldland Meal came out on Tuesday, and I grabbed one at my local McD. It’s not cheap — here in high-cost-of-living Seattle, the medium meal was $16.59 and the large was $18.29.

You can choose from a Quarter Pounder with cheese or a 10-piece McNugget order. It also comes with the chain’s famous french fries and your choice of drink. But the specialty drink that’s made to go with the meal is called the Mt. McDonaldland shake, and it’s a blazing blue color, topped with hot pink whipped cream.

You know what regular McDonald’s food tastes like, but you’ve perhaps never had this flavor of shake before. McDonald’s teases in its press release that it’s «up to you to discover the surprise flavor.» (You can order the shake without the meal if you just want to try it.)

I braced myself for a super-sugary shake that I’d take one sip of and then dump out. But I was surprised. It was an acceptable flavor that I drank about half of. Sweet, yes, but not mouth-puckeringly so. There was a vague fruit flavor that I couldn’t exactly nail down.

Maybe cotton candy? Maybe blue raspberry? Maybe both of those, mixed? I would not order the Mt. McDonaldland shake again, but it’s a fun, colorful twist for a one-time purchase. If you don’t want to try it, you can choose a regular drink or another flavor of shake with your McDonaldland meal.

I sampled the hot pink whipped cream by itself, and it seemed to have no flavor, so maybe they just took regular whipped cream and dyed it pink.

Instead of a simple toy, the McDonaldland Meal comes with a 5-by-7-inch tin with one of the McDonaldland mascot characters on it. I ended up with Hamburglar, who, after Grimace, would probably have been my choice.

Tins come embossed with Hamburglar, Grimace, Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese, Birdie the Early Bird and the Fry Guys. Honestly, I’m not sure what anyone would do with this tin, but it was definitely a classier included item than most of the Happy Meal toys.

Inside the tin is a card with a code you can scan to explore McDonaldland online, an ID card for your particular character, two postcards and four stickers. One of my stickers said «robble robble,» the Hamburglar’s favorite saying, and one read, «Keep up! Hamburglar and I are mid-heist.» I can’t really imagine anyone putting these on their water bottle or laptop, but to each their own.

Honestly, unless McDonald’s nostalgia is your thing, I’d recommend you just stick to ordering your usual at the Golden Arches and skipping the meal. But if you just don’t get enough blue and pink food in your life — and who does? — try the Mt. McDonaldland shake once, pass it around to let your friends guess the flavor, and then go back to chocolate or another good old standard flavor.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 13 #528

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Aug. 13, No. 528.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle focuses on a certain film director who’s made some of my favorite movies. The titles are pretty popular, so my guess if you will find them easily and unscramble them without difficulty. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Hitchcock festival

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Classic cinema

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BOLT, BOLTS, COPE, CHOP, TITLE, LIFE, SOUR, ROUT, ROUTS, BOAT, SIRE, LOOT.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

PSYCHO, ROPE, TOPAZ, VERTIGO, LIFEBOAT, NOTORIOUS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FILMTITLE. To find it, look for the F, the last letter in the far-right vertical row, wind backwards and then up.

Technologies

The 20 Best PS4 Games

Sony’s eighth-gen console is just as relevant as ever. These are the all-time best games on the PS4.

It has been more than a decade since Sony released the PlayStation 4, but the console is just as important as ever. Despite being released in November 2013, the PS4 is still in production today, with well over 100 million units being sold over its lifetime and some new games still arriving on it, including Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii.

When it launched in 2013, Sony’s eighth-gen console arrived with tech upgrades that seem du jour now, but were exciting over a decade ago. For instance, the DualShock 4 controller included special buttons to record and share video as well as a touchpad that could turn haptic feedback into a new source of interactivity. This console generation also introduced the PlayStation Camera, similar to Xbox’s Kinect, and the first iteration of PlayStation VR.

In 2016, Sony released new models of the PS4. The PlayStation 4 Slim was more efficient, with increased thermal management and power efficiency, while the PlayStation 4 Pro greatly improved the performance and loading times of the original model.

There are many games still getting released on the PlayStation 4, and though they don’t run as well as they would on a ninth-generation console (the PS5 and the PS5 Pro), they’re still bolstering the value of a console that just became a teenager. CNET curated this list of the all-time greats released on the PS4, including some of the best exclusives as well as some critically acclaimed multiplatform games.

Best PS4 Games — August 2025

Best PS4 game FAQs

Recent updates to the list

August 2025: Added Shadow of the Colossus, Grand Theft Auto 5, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Journey and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

How we determined CNET’s best PlayStation 4 games

When creating this list of the best PlayStation 4 games, we factored in how unique and enjoyable these games are for most players — we evaluated criteria including graphical quality, innovative gameplay mechanics and compelling narratives. The picks we made cover a variety of genres from fantasy to racers to shooters to open-world games, and while we favored PlayStation 4-exclusive games you won’t find on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC we also included some can’t-miss games that appear on multiple platforms. If you’re looking for help choosing your next game, CNET’s top PlayStation 4 list is a good place to start narrowing your choices.