What the Equifax Data Breach Means for You

The Equifax data breach is shaping up to be one of the largest in American history, with the personal information of 143 million U.S. consumers having been exposed. Knowing that means nearly half of the country has been vulnerable, our team at Richard Banks & Associates has decided to compile some tips on what to do post-breach.

If you haven’t already, you can go to Equifax’s TrustedID website and find out if your information is at risk of being stolen. To do this, you’ll need to enter the last six digits of your Social Security number and last name. If the site tells you that your information may be at risk, the time to act is NOW!

What could happen if you do nothing:

If you’ve planned on just doing nothing and letting the whole thing die down, realize that you are setting yourself up for what could turn into very serious problems in the future. Financial or criminal identity theft is nothing to play around with, as both can have negative impacts on your life for years to come. It was found that in 2016, 15.4 million consumers were impacted by fraud, with the mean amount per fraud victim equaling $1,038. Making matters worse is the fact that criminals can steal your identity and then commit criminal acts that may show up on your record or even lead to your arrest or appearance in court. Truly, a stolen identity is nothing that you want to deal with.

What you need to do:

1. Monitor your credit report. Keeping up with your credit report is one of the easiest ways to make sure that no one is using your information. If something pops up on your credit report that shouldn’t be there, you’ll be able to report and dispute it with the Federal Trade Commission.

2. Consider freezing your credit. It’s not as drastic as it sounds and by freezing your credit, you’ll be protecting yourself from the hassle of becoming a victim of identity theft. If you are in the market for a new car or house, you may want to hold off on the freeze, but afterward would be smart to pursue it. Remember that a credit freeze is only effective if done through all three credit bureaus—Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Once it is in place, no one, including you, will be able to access your credit to open up a new line of credit unless you have first “thawed” it.

3. Look into identity-theft protection services. Since the Equifax breach was announced, Symantec’s LifeLock identity-theft protection service has seen its sign-ups jump tenfold. Plans with LifeLock begin with a standard plan at $9.99 a month and run as high as $29.99 per month for the premium plan. There are other identity-theft protection services out there for you to look into as well.

We hope that you were one of the lucky ones whose information was not put at risk by the Equifax breach and if you were, then we hope that you’ll follow this advice and begin monitoring your credit information.