Before you panic
Yes, it is best to be concerned about your data. Between all of our smart devices and services that connect our data over the web. It seems like it is only a matter of time before we have our identity stolen.
However, panic is never a plan. We need to understand how the latest breach effects us and what we need to do to protect ourselves better.
My biggest concern with the Equifax Breach
Equifax is one of the three credit reporting agencies in the United States. This breach exposes the name, address, birthday, and Social Security number of 143 million people. 209 thousand people had their credit card information lost. And 182 thousand lost documents by Equifax according to www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. The first thing you need to do is go to www.equifaxsecurity2017.com and see if you or your children have been affected.
What to do now?
Chances are you or someone in your family have been exposed. Here are the quick steps you need to do if you are part of the 143 million.
Ways to protect yourself
- Check your credit reports for free on www.annualcreditreport.com
- Place a Fraud Alert or credit freeze on Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion
- File your tax return ASAP
- Signup for a service like Credit Karma
- The market leader is LifeLock
- Or what we use ID Shield which is like LifeLock with extra SSN protection
- Or better yet higher a service that will help resolve problems if you are compromised
- Protect your passwords and track all the sites you have bad or duplicate passwords with LastPass.
- Always use VPNs when you are not in a secured network. Try NordVPN
24 other reasons to protect yourself
Since 2016 there have been 25 major data breaches with at least 900 Million records lost. And out of those numbers, there have been many companies who do not know or did not state how many records have been lost. There could have also been other breaches that have not been publicly released. In these days of an interconnected world, you should consider the best ways to protect yourself and assume that at some point you or a family member will have their identity stolen. Please consider a service like Identity Shield as a way to protect yourself.
- Equifax 2017
- Taringa 2017
- Grozio Chirurgija 2017
- Erie County Medical Center 2017
- Friend Finder Networks 2016
- Commission on Elections 2016
- Weebly 2016
- Taobao 2016
- 21st Century Oncology 2016
- KM.RU 2016
- Nival Networks 2016
- Verizon Communications 2016
- Apple Health Medicaid 2016
- University of California, Berkeley 2016
- University of Central Florida 2016
- Central Coast Credit Union 2016
- Cox Communications 2016
- Department of Homeland Security 2016
- Democratic National Committee 2016
- Inuvik hospital 2016
- EyeWire 2016
- Gyft 2016
- Ofcom 2016
- Rosen Hotels 2016
- TaxSlayer.com 2016
Other Sources
Get An Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/understanding-your-cp01a-notice
The Equifax Data Breach: What to Do
When Information Is Lost or Exposed
Best Identity-Theft Protection 2017
NOTE: This post contains affiliate links
Links
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https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/understanding-your-cp01a-notice
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do
https://www.identitytheft.gov/Info-Lost-or-Stolen
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-identity-theft-protection,review-2083.html
https://nordvpn.com/free-trial/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_breaches
https://www.equifax.com/personal/?/
http://www.experian.com/
https://www.transunion.com/
https://www.creditkarma.com/auth/logon/
https://www.lifelock.com/
https://www.idshield.com/
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