More employees are likely to see a timely new offering when theychoose their benefits in a month or so—identity-theftprotection. About 35% of companies offered it in 2015, globaladvisory firm Willis Towers Watson has reported, and 70% have saidit could be on their benefits menu by 2018.

The huge data breach at EquifaxInc. is accelerating that timetable. Interest inadding the service as part of a voluntary benefits plan was alreadyon the rise over the past few years, courtesy of themassive Anthem data breach in 2015, among others. Butthat's nothing compared with this latest creditbureau disaster.

“Over the last two weeks or so—oh my word,” said Amy Hollis,national leader-voluntary benefits at Willis Towers Watson. “Theentire paradigm of how employers are viewing identity theft hasjust shifted.”

Now, some employers that planned to offer it next year aretrying to shift it this year, she said, making it one of thefastest growing plan options. This development will of course be aboon to identity-theft protection companies such asInfoArmor, ID Watchdog, LifeLock andCyberScout. “I see the fever pitch at which these programs arebeing adopted in benefits plans, and it's only becoming morefevered since the Equifax breach,” said Adam Levin, chairman andfounder of CyberScout and a former director of the New JerseyDivision of Consumer Affairs. The graphic below shows some ofthe fastest growing voluntary benefits in recent years,according to a Willis Towers Watson survey of humanresources professionals.

Employers see it as a timely perk that appeals toeveryone—especially millennials. Plus, it's low-cost. Lastyear, the Internal Revenue Service said it could be considered anon-taxable benefit for employees; before, it wastaxable unless the employer had a breach. Manycompanies offer the service free to employees; othersoffer it at a discounted price or share the cost. At someemployers, if an employee wants to make it a family plan,they can pay extra.

Employers have a strong interest in their workers using theservice. Recovering from ID theft can be a huge drain on time—mostcalls to fix things have to be made during the workday. A 2016report from the Identity Theft Resource Center, which helpsvictims of identity theft, found that nearly 56%of victims surveyed needed to take time off work to deal withthe issue. Then there's the mental cost: A 2014 survey of identityvictims by the Department of Justice found that 36% of people whosepersonal information was stolen “reported moderate or severeemotional distress as a result of the incident.”

How effective are identity theft protection services inpreventing fraud? That's extremely difficult to judge, sincethe data is “fairly green,” said Hollis. A March 2017 reportby the Government Accountability Office found that “when selectinga vendor to provide identity theft services, companiesconsider a variety of factors, but generally do not directly assessthe effectiveness of each provider's services, according tobreached companies and experts with whom we spoke.” Thebiggest benefit for employers and employees may be peace ofmind—and thus higher productivity.

The federal government is no stranger to picking upafter cyberattacks, either. After a 2015 breach, the U.S.Office of Personnel Management entered into contracts worth$240 million for identity theft services for federalemployees, according to the GAO report. The report noted thatearly last year the Obama administration proposed for thefiscal year 2017 budget that identity theft services be added as anemployee benefit.

Should another breach happen, the General Service Administrationdoes have contracts with IdentityForce to provide identitymonitoring and data breach response services for affected workers,and with Identity Theft Guard Solutions, which does business as IDExperts.

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