As I am sure many of you have heard in the news, the credit reporting agency Equifax suffered a breach which led to the personal information of 143 million Americans being leaked. People’s names, social security numbers, birth dates, and other sensitive information were compromised as well as the credit card numbers of up to 209,000 people. With this information, criminals could set up credit accounts and even file false tax returns in your name to steal tax refunds. This is one of the largest breaches of information ever, and given the amount of people affected, it is likely that you are among them as well.
So what steps should you take to protect yourself from fraud and identity theft? You should first check to see if you were impacted by the breach at Equifax Security 2017. Equifax is offering 1 year of complementary credit monitoring through Trusted ID Premier regardless of if your data was leaked. In addition to enrolling, you can check your credit reports by visiting Annual Credit Report to see if there is suspicious activity or accounts that you don’t recognize. You can also consider placing a fraud alert, or a credit freeze on your files. Finally, you should file your taxes as early as possible to avoid scammers filing false returns in your name.
This breach highlights how important it is to keep your data secure and the potential consequences of a leak. While there may not have been anything you could have done to prevent the Equifax breach, you can take steps to protect yourself and your family in the future. Cybersecurity is only going to become more critical as the world grows increasingly digital, so be sure to keep ahead of threats before they occur.
All the Best,
Wayne