One of the nation’s top three consumer credit reporting agencies announced that a massive data breach of customers personal information had occurred.
Equifax said that hackers had gained access to 143 million American’s accounts including their social security and driver license numbers. The hackers were also able to obtain consumers names, birth dates and addresses as well as credit card numbers for 209,000 customers and other documents that contained personal information used in disputes from 182,000 customers.
This attack was discovered on July 29th although the compromised information was accessed from mid-May to July. It seems to have taken quite some time to identify and report this breach – but it gets worse… apparently 3 senior Equifax executives sold almost 1.8 million in shares of stock within days after the breach was discovered. Read about this on CNN Money
This breach is about as bad as it gets – if you have a credit report, chances are very good that you are affected by this breach.
Equifax is responsible for data for more than 820 million customers and 91 million businesses nationwide.
What Can You Do? Equifax has established a website to help consumers determine if their information has been compromised and is offering them credit monitoring if it was.
BE CAREFUL Click wisely on ANY links you may find supposedly leading to information regarding this breach. There are other attackers out there trying to get you to go to their sites and enter personal information as well.
Here’s the valid link to the Equifax website for additional information and their enrollment for credit file monitoring. https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/
Here’s their link to check if you’re information was stolen: https://trustedidpremier.com/eligibility/eligibility.html
After verifying whether or not you are at risk, you can continue and click the link presented to enroll in TrustedID Premier. This is a 2-Step process so pay strict attention to the information provided once you click through the link.
HERE’S A SAMPLE OF WHAT YOU WILL SEE AFTER ENROLLING: Thank You
Your enrollment date for TrustedID Premier is: 09/14/2017
Please be sure to mark your calendar as you will not receive additional reminders. On or after your enrollment date, please return to faq.trustedidpremier.com and click the link to continue through the enrollment process.
