Recent Equifax Hack Affecting Millions
I am actually on my honeymoon currently, but I have been watching the news due to the Hurricane Irma that just hit Georgia, where we live.
In that news is something else major out of Atlanta which is the Equifax security and data breach, which I have been sharing info via our Facebook site.
Someone shared the info below and I wanted to share it here so that you all can check your accounts and also setup the locks on your credit. This is a major breach as the hackers were able to match names with Social Security numbers.
For now I am off to go see a volcano but I will leave you with this:
This is from the New York Times.
You’ll probably want to Freeze your Credit Accounts and only allow people access when you want to get credit. It’s a pain, but the highest form of protection. All of these except TransUnion have Freeze capabilities. TU does too, but they have a TruIdenity option that allows you to control access dynamically.
You’ll receive a PIN with all of these which you’ll need to keep to unfreeze your accounts when you apply for credit. Links to the different companies and the Times article are at the bottom.
To quote the Times:
“In the meantime, here’s hoping that this breach is the nudge you need to finally sign up for permanent freezes on your credit files. I’ve used them for years, and here’s how they work. You sign up (and pay some fees, because you knew it wasn’t going to be free to protect data that you didn’t ask these companies to store, right?) at Equifax’s, Experian’s and TransUnion’s websites. Christina Bater, managing director at Barrett Asset Management in New York, suggests freezing your file at the little-known company Innovis, too. Hey, why not?
A credit freeze is different from a fraud alert, though you should also request one of those in the wake of the Equifax breach, for the longest possible time on offer, from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion as well. Once that free alert is in place, potential creditors should contact you for confirmation anytime you (or a thief) tries to open up a new account.”
https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze
https://www.innovis.com/personal/securityFreeze
The New York Times article this comes from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/your-money/identity-theft/equifaxs-instructions-are-confusing-heres-what-to-do-now.html
Share if you find it helpful.