What you need to know about the Equifax Hack

Equifax announced yesterday afternoon that they suffered a breach of their data in late July, affecting as many as 143 million individuals, or roughly 44% of the US. Equifax is one of the three main organizations that calculates credit scores, and thus has access to an extraordinary amount of personal and financial data for nearly every American, including social security numbers addresses, birth dates and driver’s license data.¹

Equifax has announced that it will mail notices to those affected by the breach and is offering 1 year of credit monitoring for free.

What can you do?

• Equifax has set up www.equifaxsecurity2017.com to see if your information has been compromised.
• Check your credit report. Check to see if any cards have been opened in your name without your permission.
• Place a 90-day fraud alert. “According to the Federal Trade Commission, you are allowed to activate a free 90-day fraud alert with one of the three credit bureaus, which will make it harder for identity thieves to steal your information. You can also renew it after the 90-day period is over.”²

This is a good reminder to remain vigilant in regards to your credit score.

1 https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-protect-yourself-from-that-massive-equifax-breach/
2 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-to-check-equifax-security-hack_us_59b1f8a5e4b0354e4410c754
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/technology/business/equifax-data-breach/index.html