Steps You Can Take Now If You Were Part Of The Equifax Hack

SpamSandwich

Here are some actions you can take now if you were part of the massive Equifax hacking.

You need to first see if your information is safe (for now) and if it's not, you need to initiate a "credit freeze" at the four credit reporting agencies. Note that depending on where you live in the US, this might be free or cost you $5 or $10 every time you freeze or lift the freeze on your information. You'll have to look at this cost going forward as insurance against credit rating damage, identity theft or the loss of all of your money.

Number one, check to see if your information was in fact compromised at Equifax.com. They will try to entice you to sign up with their "credit monitoring service". Don't do it.

If your information has in fact been compromised, go here:  https://www.freeze.equifax.com and initiate a credit freeze.

Next, you'll need to go to the remaining three (3) credit reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Innovis (remember, these are US only).

Experian: http://www.experian.com (NOTE: Personally, I'm having a devil of a time getting my information frozen with these idiots)

TransUnion: https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp

Innovis: https://www.innovis.com/personal/securityFreeze

If you've been hacked, you need to face the fact that you will be dealing with this horrible breach of critical information for the rest of your life. The information is out there and there's nothing you can do about that. Be proactive whenever you can be about protecting your information.

SpamSandwich

One thing I forgot to mention about a "credit freeze". This simply means a hacker/thief cannot access your information to apply for a loan or new credit cards or other things which would end up costing you money or time or damage to your credit rating. It won't stop you from doing business with places or businesses with which you already have a prior business relation. You'll need to "lift" the freeze on your information a day or two before you intend to shop at a new place, apply for a loan, apply for a job, try to get a new car, or a house, etc. Anything that involves running a credit check you'll need to lift the freeze and pay for this each time (if a cost applies in your state). And after you establish the new business relationship, you'll want to RE-freeze your information and pay for this if it applies. This is going to become standard operating procedure for you if you intend on protecting yourself. It's cumbersome but completely necessary.

Now, you could also pay for a service like LifeLock (their top of the line service costs about $30/month), for example, but putting a credit freeze on your information is getting ahead of the problem. LifeLock can only tell you about the problem after it has happened.

Good luck, half of America (and yes, I was part of this breach).

SpamSandwich

And here's a NY Times article, which pretty much summarizes the same information:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/your-money/identity-theft/equifaxs-instructions-are-confusing-heres-what-to-do-now.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

And based on a little testing by the author of this NY Times article, they've determined that Equifax really HAS NO CLUE whose information has been breached! Honestly, I think the 143 million people estimate is too low. I think the real potential number of people affected is 330 million!

SpamSandwich

And here is ArsTechnica's damning assessment:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/09/why-the-equifax-breach-is-very-possibly-the-worst-leak-of-personal-info-ever/

SpamSandwich

And here is the opinion of Consumer Reports:

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/02/should-you-put-a-security-freeze-on-the-credit-file/index.htm