Equifax, one of the three credit reporting agencies, announced there was a data breach which exposed 143 million records including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates, credit card numbers, and driver’s license numbers.  This is a large and significant data breach that deserves your attention.

Initial steps each person should take now:

• Determine if you were impacted by this breach:  https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/
• Enroll in Equifax’s complimentary ID theft protection and credit monitoring:  https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/
• Start a fraud alert https://www.experian.com/help/.  The Equifax website has been offline at times, presumably from the excess consumer web traffic.  So you may have better luck using Experian’s site.  You only need to do this with Experian and they’ll share the fraud alert with Equifax and Trans Union.

Remember, credit fraud and ID theft is per individual, so each person in a household needs to take these steps. If you have further questions about this data breach, please connect with us.