Equifax Hack: Enrolling in Free Identity Theft Protection and Credit Monitoring Services
Since the Equifax hack was announced, millions of U.S. consumers have panicked about their credit ratings. After the Federal Trade Commission stated that the personal data of those with credit files at Equifax may have actually been involved in the breach, people have been wanting to know how to verify if their information was also impacted by this massive hack.
On Sept. 8, Equifax confirmed that a recent hack might have involved as many as 143 million consumers throughout the United States. According to reports, hackers were able to access between the months of May and July some personal information of U.S. consumers, which included names, social security numbers, credit card numbers and driver's license numbers. When asked to rate this identity theft and fraud incident, an analyst from Gartner Inc. said, "On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 10."
According to reports, people with Equifax credit files can determine if their personal information was breached by logging on to Equifaxsecurity2017.com and following the links there. After filling in the required information, the system will give advice based on the details provided if the person's personal information was actually impacted by the incident.
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Right now, Equifax offers enrollment in the company's identity theft protection and credit monitoring service called TrustedID Premier, the process of which is the same as the one mentioned above. Towards the end of this process, the system will give the person an enrollment date, which offers some measure of protection and early detection of ID theft.
Since there is no assurance that being enrolled in TrustedID Premier will not leave one's account uncompromised ever again, it is necessary for one to be extra cautious so as not to fall prey to professional identity thieves. Not using a debit card when making online purchases, regularly reviewing all the activities on one's credit card and looking for incorrect account information may help in the early detection and reduction of the possibility of one's personal account information being used fraudulently.
