Equifax Data Breach – What to do now

RE: Equifax Data Breach

As you may have heard, over 143,000,000 consumers had their personal information compromised by a data breach at Equifax, one of the nation’s 3 major credit bureaus. The breach lasted from May through July.  The hackers accessed people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. They also stole credit card numbers for about 209,000 people and dispute documents with personal identifying information for about 182,000 people. And they grabbed personal information of people in the UK and Canada too.

  1. To see if your information could be compromised go to equifaxsecurity2017.com
  2. If so file a complaint with the Attorney General, in Nevada go to: AG.NV.GOV to file.
  3. Check your credit reports at all 3 bureaus to ensure there is no new activity or accounts that you did not initiate. Go to annualcreditreport.com
  4. If you find you are a victim of identity theft go to: IdentityTheft.gov for direction.
  5. Monitor your existing credit card accounts and bank accounts closely forever.
  6. File your taxes early! As soon as you have the information needed file, before a scammer can.  Tax identity theft happens when someone uses your Social Security number to get a tax refund or a job. Respond right away to letters from the IRS.
Other notable Recent Data Breaches:

Yahoo: In September 2016, Yahoo announced a breach of customer account information including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords and security questions

IRS Data Retrieval Tool for FAFSA:  In April 2017 the IRS sent letters offering free credit monitoring to the 100,000 people affected by the breach of the data retrieval tool on FAFSA.Gov & StudentLoans.gov.  Identity thieves may have used personal information obtained outside the tax system to access the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form in an attempt to secure tax information through the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. As a precautionary step, the IRS has moved quickly to notify taxpayers who could be affected as well as offering them free credit monitoring.