On September 11th this year, credit reporting company Equifax disclosed that, in an apparent hack, it had exposed data from over 140 million Americans. That’s most of the adult population.
Included in the theft was information including Social Security numbers, addresses and driver’s license numbers – effectively everything that an identity thief would need to impersonate you. Also disclosed, data on at least 200,000 credit cards.
To say it’s bad is understating it. It’s so bad that news about it was everywhere. If you missed the news, googling “Equifax hack news” will return more than you care to learn. The scope of “bad” is nearly unfathomable…
Equifax knew about this breach for weeks before disclosing it. Some top level executives may have sold stock in front of the news. A couple key execs “retired”. And just now as I’m writing this, it’s coming out that there may have been another undisclosed breach in March, months earlier than the one responsible for the 143 million records stolen.
It’s a mess that could affect millions of people directly through disclosed information, and maybe millions more as the credit reporting business itself may change.
This also is another wake up call (like we needed another one?) highlighting the critical need to do a much better job of securing IT infrastructure and data. It’s something we think about every day and will have more to say about soon, in some new strategies and services to secure your own systems.
For now, what should you do to protect yourself? First, Equifax’s own assessment of your vulnerability (available at equifaxsecurity2017.com) is suspect. If you have or had a mortgage, a car loan, a credit card, ever – it’s likely Equifax has data about you, and you should assume that information is now “out there”. So…
Review your credit report now, and regularly. Put a fraud alert on your credit now. Consider putting a freeze on your credit, and subscribing to a credit monitoring and protection service (but not the free one Equifax is offering). Plan to stay vigilant for a long time. Your personal information has a long shelf life to patient criminals.
If you need a helping hand, let us know.
