Unfortunately, I work in a field that sees a tremendous amount of identity theft. It is nearly impossible to protect yourself or put in place measures to keep identity theft from happening. However, there is plenty that you can do to safeguard your information and protect yourself. 

Step 1 - Learn and follow best practices when it comes to protecting your identity and data both online and off. Investing in a shedder, locking important documents in a safe, never leaving personal information in view of the public, and protecting passwords and credit card information. Below are two articles that provide a guideline of best practices to follow.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0272-how-keep-your-personal-information-secure

https://www.lifelock.com/learn-internet-security-ways-to-help-protect-your-personal-information-online.html

Step 2 - Credit Monitoring & Identity theft insurance. ID Theft insurance is available in so many places. Certain bank account offers credit monitoring and ID theft insurance. Most credit card companies offer credit monitoring and ID theft insurance. Your homeowner’s insurance and vehicle insurance policies usually offer ID theft insurance as an addendum. Lastly, you can purchase additional protection in the form of traveler’s insurance or through companies like LifeLock. The honest advantage to all of this is that you have diversified ID theft monitoring and multiple forms of financial protection in the event your identity is compromised. I would recommend no less than $100,000 in aggregate coverage. You should increase this coverage as your income and financial situation matures. 

https://www.idprotectme247.com/sec/

https://www.lifelock.com/

Step 3 - Regularly check your credit report for suspicious activity. You are entitled to one free credit report from each of the three credit agencies once a year. I recommend pulling using the quarterly method and access one report every four months. In this way, you can monitor the information on your credit profile regularly and file disputes and claims to have bad information removed. By doing this, I have removed false addresses and suspicious inquiries before they had a chance to damage my credit or hurt my financial situation. 

https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/get-my-free-credit-report

Step 4 - Know what to do if your identity is compromised and act as quickly as possible to report the situation to the proper authorities and credit agencies. 

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayer-guide-to-identity-theft

All of these best practices are what I personally do to monitor and protect my identity. In my experience, there is little you can do to keep from becoming a victim, but the most important part of identity theft is in the level of protection you have in the event of an incident. I hope this helps to answer your question. 

- Professor Canania