Consumer Alert: Equifax Cybersecurity Breach

Equifax Inc., one of the nation's "big three" credit reporting bureaus, announced a cybersecurity breach potentially impacting approximately 143 million U.S. consumers. According to the announcement, criminals exploited a website application vulnerability between mid-May through July 2017 and gained access to certain files.
What information was accessed? According to Equifax, the information accessed included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, some driver's license numbers, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 consumers, and dispute documents with personal information for approximately 182,000 consumers.
How does this affect you? Visit equifaxsecurity2017.com and click on "Potential Impact" to find out if your information may have been compromised. You can also contact their dedicated call center at 866-447-7559 between 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. ET, seven days a week. Equifax is also mailing notices to consumers whose credit card numbers or dispute documents were accessed.

Equifax is offering credit monitoring for all three credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), copies of Equifax credit reports, the ability to lock and unlock Equifax credit reports, identity theft insurance, and Internet scanning for Social Security numbers. These services will be offered for free for one year.

Equifax also recommends that consumers thoroughly review their credit reports and bank or credit card account statements, and report any unauthorized or unusual activity to their financial institutions immediately.