This scandal is completely out of hand! 143 Million People here in the US have had all their most personal data stolen: Your most important data…SS Numbers, addresses, age, date-of-birth, driver’s license number and more. Its all out there in the hands of criminals, waiting to be used. Your identity and credit rating is all up for grabs!
For those who don’t know, Equifax is one of three major credit reporting companies that keep track and report your credit rating. When you apply for a loan, or a credit card, or even a new job, they report your credit information to the requesting agency.
Sometime early last summer, the idiots in their IT Department forgot to patch their servers with an important software update, leaving them vulnerable to attack…and they were attacked and massive amounts of data stolen.
The morons that ran that company apparently knew about it but did not make it public. To compound matters, some of the higher echelon officers sold their personal stock for millions, a criminal offense that is currently under investigation by the SEC. In August, all this became public.
Equifax then set up a Web site where members of the public could go to see if they were infected. The site gave erroneous information and could not be relied upon. Then to make matters worse, the idiots in IT entered an incorrect Web site that directed people to a fake site that got more of your personal information. Unbelievable! It just keeps getting worse and worse.
But the most important thing for all us victims is to protect ourselves as best we can from having our identity stolen. Here are a few things you can do.
First watch this very recent YouTube video, The Equifax Hack: How Can You Protect Yourself from Identity Theft?. This will give you the basic information and get you started.
The very first thing you should do today is set up a special Fraud Alert. It is free and good for 90 days. You contact one of the three credit reporting companies and fill out a form. The company will then notify the other two companies that you have an alert set up.
My suggestion is to stay away from Equifax and use Trans Union. Their form is on line and can be done in just a couple of minutes. Their site is at fraud.transunion.com. I also suggest you make a note on your calendar regarding the expiration date so you can renew it when it expires.
You can also do a credit freeze. It will cost you anywhere from $5 to $30 per company as you have to do this with each of the three credit agencies. Most experts I have listened to don’t recommend this method as it prevents all access to your credit records without your permission and could complicate your credit applications.
Instead, you might want to use an Identity Protections Service that continuously monitors your credit data and other sources looking for possible issues. The YouTube Video recommends Identity Force which also monitors Medical ID, Court Records and other locations for $10 a month. This is the one I am investigating.
There are also other companies that do the same such as LifeLock and ID Shield. Each has different plans at different prices. So I suggest you look at them all and make your decision. Too bad we can’t get Equifax to pay for this.
You might also want to start changing passwords. Consider using long, easily remembered phrases from now on. Also get a copy of your current credit report if you have not done so lately. For a free copy, go to www.annualcreditreport.com.
I hope all this helps. Sadly, there is more to come on this terrible story. –JRC
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