Our thoughts on the Equifax Hack

While data breaches are seemingly a fact of life these days, the Equifax data breach was massive, exposing the personal Social Security, address, and date of birth of a little over half of Americans. Equifax is one of the three credit reporting agencies, so you didn’t have to have personal dealings with Equifax to be caught up in this hack. 

People have a right to be upset. It’s reported that Equifax learned about this breach back in July, but just announced it. According to Business Insider, it’s also rumored that executives cashed in Equifax stock in advance of the announcement. But it’s important not to become too disheartened by the event.

First, it’s a reminder to exercise good data and account security. That means changing passwords regularly and paying attention to your credit status, including looking for unrequested accounts. Pay attention if you are contacted by a credit card issuer, bank or retailer when they reference a transaction that you didn’t do. You can find out if you’re information was possibly involved in this attack by trying to enroll in Equifax’s Trusted ID protection for 1 year at: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/ . You should be aware that if your credit is already frozen or has an alert on it, the enrollment will not work. Much was made about the original disclaimer language that said if you took advantage of this, you could not sue Equifax. That language has been removed, according to their website.

Even before this breach, one should assume your data was probably already out there. We have heard that you can buy almost anybody’s personal information on the dark web for minimal cost. Likely targets are false tax returns (asking for refunds that should not exist) and setting up credit access you did not request. Retirement and Brokerage accounts have enhanced security beyond just your name and social security number, so these accounts are not easy targets for hackers.  For instance, we know our clients personally, and even then, look for transactions that don’t make immediate sense.

It should be noted that Social Security recently upgraded their online security measures. If you haven’t done this, you might consider logging onto their online sight and opting for increased security. You can use this website www.ssa.gov. Once again, if you have your credit on alert or freeze, you won’t be able to use this feature, since they use your credit as a mechanism to confirm your identity.

Clients ask if they should set up a credit freeze or credit alert. A credit freeze will cost about $30.00 to activate and deactivate per credit agency and will take a few days to a week each time you turn it off or on. It’s a little clumsy, but it should stop all new credit creation. The credit bureaus hate this, but it’s an option. What they prefer is a credit alert, which means that if you were a victim of a breach, for free they will alert you if someone is attempting to set credit up in your name for 7 years. Lines are pretty jammed right now, but you would do this by calling each of the credit agencies.

Here are three additional articles we thought might be helpful:

https://www.businessinsider.com/equifax-hack-dont-freak-out-2017-9

https://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/pf/victim-equifax-hack-how-to-find-out/index.html

https://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/