Equifax Data Breach

On Thursday, September 8, 2017, Equifax announced a cybersecurity incident which could have lead to the release of information of up to 143 million individuals. Personal information has been compromised in this case including name, social security numbers, birth dates, and other personal information.

Here are some steps you can take:

• Watch your financial accounts (including credit cards) closely. Often, small charges will be used to confirm that your account is still open and active. If you see any suspicious activity, you need to contact your financial institution as quickly as possible to rectify the situation.
• Check your credit report for any unusual activity and contact the reporting agencies to fix it.
• Work with your financial institutions to fraud monitoring or credit freezes. You can also look into a credit monitoring service for continual monitoring.
• You can check whether you were affected by the data breach go to https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/enroll/ and scroll down on the page to “Begin Enrollment” button.
• The Federal Trade Commission has a helpful website with resources for identity theft. Visit https://www.identitytheft.gov/Info-Lost-or-Stolen for more information.