Equifax Breach: Was Your Personal Information Affected?
09/08/2017
On September 7, 2017, Equifax announced a breach that may have affected 143 Million U.S. Consumers. Equifax believes that the unauthorized access occurred from mid-May through July 2017. Was your personal information affected?
Equifax has set up a website for you to enroll in a complimentary identity theft protection program and to find out if your personal information was involved.
https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/enroll/
You will be asked to provide your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number. After you enter that information you will receive a message indicating the potential for your personal information being involved in the breach. You will also being given a date to return to the site to enroll in the complimentary identity theft protection.
What happened? Here is a link to an explanation of the cyber security incident from Equifax CEO, Rick Smith.
https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/
What else can you do to protect yourself? You might want to consider a credit freeze. What does that do? A credit freeze you can prevent ID thieves from applying for credit in your name. You also prevent yourself from applying for credit, until lifting the freeze.
The website Krebs on Security has a great article on what it means to apply a credit freeze and how to do it.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-embrace-the-security-freeze/
The above is for informational purposes only. This is not to be considered a recommendation to take action or not to take action. It is important to be informed about all options and then decide what is best for you.
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