09/08/2017
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THAT MASSIVE EQUIFAX BREACH
On Thursday, the company disclosed that a data breach it discovered on July 29 may have impacted as many as 143 million consumers in the United States. Equifax is one of the three main organizations in the US that calculates credit scores, so it has access to an extraordinary amount of personal and financial data for virtually every American adult.
All told, as much as 44 percent of the US population will feel the impact of this breach for years to come, especially when it comes to their Social Security numbers.
Equifax will send paper mail to consumers whose credit card numbers or dispute documents with personally identifying information were impacted. It has also created a dedicated website for consumers to see if they were affected at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com.
In the wake of this breach, experts counsel several immediate actions:
1. Be extra careful about emails and links - avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails that claim to be updates from Equifax or connected to the breach.
2. Change passwords
3. Check your credit card and other accounts frequently
September 7, 2017 — Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting approximately 143 million U.S. consumers. Criminals exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files. Based on the company’s investigation, the unauthorized a...
