This year, CNN and many other news agencies reported on the largest case of an identity theft breach in the United States. According to reports, more than 41 million credit card numbers were stolen by an identity theft ring that hacked into the computer networks of nine national retail chains, including TJX Cos, Barnes & Noble, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and OfficeMax.

It is highly recommended that you to take a few simple steps for ID fraud protection, because identity theft affects as many as 10 million Americans each year, costing billions of dollars and countless hours to correct the problems it creates.

By law, when a data breach occurs, a company is required to send a letter to notify customers of their possible exposure, said Steve Ely, a divisional president for credit monitoring company Equifax Inc. In the article from CNN, Ely said companies often downplay the problem to minimize damage to their reputation. “Ninety-nine percent of the time breach letters look like a piece of junk mail, and people throw them away.”

And indictments like those announced in August aren’t likely to prevent your data from getting into the hands of other criminals, warned Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit in San Diego.

“Even though they may have found the individuals,” said Stephens, “that is no guarantee that that information is not out there and available to people to use for fraudulent purchases.”

Most of us know these ID theft protection tips but they are worth repeating. Carry as few credit cards as possible, and leave your Social Security card locked up at home. Never give out personal information by phone, mail or on the Internet unless you initiated the exchange and know who you are dealing with. Buy and use a shredder.

Other important steps include never leave outgoing mail in your mailbox and remove your incoming mail as soon as you can; shredding or tearing up credit card offers, bills and other personal papers before discarding them. Also make sure online purchases are from secure sites, one good sign is that the address bar turns green in the most recent versions of Web browsers.

In my experience, it’s best that you limit or eliminate the use of debit or check cards linked to bank accounts, especially online. Don’t forget that you should also regularly monitor your credit report. This should, at the least, be done by ordering your free credit report each year but for even better identity fraud protection could include daily monitoring through a credit monitoring company. And use a fraud alert if you do become a victim of identity theft.

Upon request, Federal law requires each of the three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and Transunion, to provide Americans with one free credit report each year. The reports can be obtained at http://www.annualcreditreport.com or by mail. Consumer advocates recommend rotating requests among the three bureaus, obtaining a report every four months.

For a better way to protect your identity, consider paying for one of the identity theft protection services. You should carefully scrutinize what the service offers.

Though many identity theft companies offer similar services they are not all the same. One of the best monitoring companies I’ve found is TrustedID. Their system simply works, it is like having your own private identity guard on duty 24/7 to protect your identity from being stolen.