Equifax hack impact to you:
Bottom Line: As you're attempting to achieve some sense of normalcy in the wake of hurricane Irma. Avoiding scammers who say they want to help you at your home aren't the only scammers you need to be concerned about right now. You likely heard about the massive Equifax breach last week but you probably didn't prioritize it given the clear and present issue of Irma and recovery in the wake of it. Let's be real. When you don't have power how much does other stuff really seem to matter? But this Equifax issue does matter to about half of all adults in the US. Here's what you need to know right now:
- 143 million adults in the US were personally compromised via birth dates, Social Security numbers and drivers license/state ID info exposed
- 182 million adults in the US had other personal information exposed
- 209 million credit card numbers with personal information were exposed
- The theft of information occurred between May 13th through July 30th
Now, given that Equifax is one of the big three credit rating agencies (with Experian and TransUnion being the other two) it's virtually a given that they have your info on file. For businesses that use additional Equifax services the damage could be even more significant (as business records and vendor records could also be compromised).
So what should you do? First, there's a chance that stolen info has already been attempted to be used. Here's the website to access information directly from Equifax: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/
Secondly, once you've ID'd that you were potentially compromised sign up for the free ID theft protection service offered by Equifax for free if you don't already have ID theft protection. They're using Trusted ID (which is a reputable service I used about a decade ago and is my 3rd favored choice for ID theft protection). Next review all personal information, transactions, credit and debit card activity and stay on it for the foreseeable.