Recent Data Breaches in the News

There have been several recent announcements by local and national companies, including financial institutions, which state they have been a victim of data breaches where customers personally identifiable information had been stolen. Personally identifiable information may include your name, address, social security number, date of birth and other important information. These companies typically communicate with consumers directly if your information has been compromised in these breaches and often offer to pay for credit monitoring services for a period of time. If you received one of these letters, we recommend that you take advantage of those offers and have credit monitoring and identity restoration services set up for you.

What can I do to protect my accounts with Provident or elsewhere?
There are several measures that you can take to protect your account from unauthorized access.

• Do not use the same username and password you have with Provident with accounts you have at other Financial Institutions or with other websites (i.e. Gmail, Apple iCloud, etc.).
• Use complex usernames and passwords. Do not include personal information when creating your username or password, such as your date of birth, first name, or last name.
• Frequently change your passwords at least every 90 days.
• Use alert options to help you be aware of transactions that are occurring on your account. At Provident, we offer deposit and loan alerts along with credit card alerts that can be set up within online banking and can be delivered via SMS text message or email.
• Regularly review your accounts and transactions to ensure that no unauthorized transactions or suspicious activity has taken place.
• Enroll in our credit monitoring service that we provide free of charge within our online banking system.

What is Provident doing to ensure that your systems are safe?
At Provident, we take the safety and security of your information and personal information very seriously. We continuously monitor our systems for unauthorized access and upgrade our systems to the latest technology to ensure your information is protected.

Was Provident the victim of these data breaches?
No. Provident has not been the victim of these data breaches.