A high-tech security breach launches a class action lawsuit. Nearly 350,000 people are eligible to participate in the suit against data broker LexisNexis. But by joining the suit, could personal information be further compromised?

"We were one of the unfortunate ones that is a part of the list of people I believe nationwide that would have received this letter." Jon Fredricks of Fremont received notice last week that he would receive a settlement from the class action lawsuit against LexisNexis.

"It could have been from bank accounts, it could have been from credit cards. You don't know where it originated.” Fredricks doesn't know if his personal financial information was actually used by electronic thieves or if it is accessible to future crooks on the Internet somewhere.

"If they settle it and you have credit reports available for the next three years, that's great, but if it's out there electronically, you can be floating around for five years, 10 years, who knows how long?"

He's concerned that if he settles, he loses any legal rights if his identity was indeed stolen.

"A person who gets a notice that they may have information breached should be concerned about identity theft and fraud," says attorney Pam Car, who handles a lot of consumer-related cases and says members of the class action lawsuit are entitled to some protection, but there are also steps we can all take to help protect our identity.

"They're entitled to a free credit report. Anybody who's the victim of theft of identity they can also call or get on the Web site of the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian or TransUnion and request that a fraud alert be put on their account."

Fredricks has already done all that and hasn't noticed any unusual charges on any of his accounts. He also diligently monitors his financial reports. "Hopefully everything will be okay and hopefully we won't end up on a list like this again.”

Victims of identity theft will more than likely see a lot of big charges on accounts quickly. Thieves usually clean out accounts immediately.