Equifax data breach: Find out if you’re affected and get protected

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Equifax today announced a “cybersecurity incident”.  In other words, they were hacked, and about 143 million US consumers are potentially affected.

Equifax says that the information accessed “primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed.”

UPDATE: Before proceeding with the Equifax solution shown below, please read this post: Is the Equifax cure worse than the hack? Here’s what I plan to do…

Ouch.  Luckily Equifax has made it easy to find out if you were affected.  Simply go to this website and fill out the text boxes:

Equifax data breach

Neither my wife nor I were affected (assuming this site is working properly!)

a screenshot of a message

Protect yourself, for free

After checking your status, you can begin enrollment in TrustedID Premier, for free, by pressing the orange button labelled “Enroll”.  Note that enrollment is not instant.  I was told that I could complete enrollment on or after September 15th:

a screenshot of a web page

Equifax describes TrustedID Premier, as follows:

The offering, called TrustedID Premier, includes 3-Bureau credit monitoring of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit reports; copies of Equifax credit reports; the ability to lock and unlock Equifax credit reports; identity theft insurance; and Internet scanning for Social Security numbers – all complimentary to U.S. consumers for one year. The website also provides additional information on steps consumers can take to protect their personal information. Equifax recommends that consumers with additional questions visit www.equifaxsecurity2017.com or contact a dedicated call center at 866-447-7559, which the company set up to assist consumers. The call center is open every day (including weekends) from 7:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m. Eastern time.

More details about this stuff can be found here: equifaxsecurity2017.com

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