Equifax Breach... What You Need to Know & How to Proceed

Equifax announced that hackers stole half of the US population’s social security numbers, birthdays and addresses in what is likely to be one of the worst data breaches to ever to affect our country.

It is imperative for every American to determine whether or not their information was compromised.  The data that was taken will give criminals the ability to open credit in over 143 million people’s names!  Unfortunately, once they do this, clearing your name is extremely costly and time consuming. For all intents and purposes, you are considered guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. 

To find out if your information was part of the Equifax hack, put the following website into your search bar EXACTLY the way it is written – it is case sensitive:  goo.gl/ZZ5JUf

To learn more about freezing your credit, put the following website into your search bar EXACTLY the way it is written – it is case sensitive:  goo.gl/6ASoXR

There are four credit reporting agencies that you should freeze your credit with – they are listing in the article. You can apply this freeze for different lengths of time.  It will not affect your ability to use your current credit, only your ability (and more importantly, the criminal’s ability) to get new credit in your name. If you do need to open new credit, you can temporarily remove the freeze.  An important note: when you freeze your credit, you will be given a passcode that will be needed to unfreeze your credit – put this information in a very safe place – it is INCREDIBLY important in that it is the only way you can unfreeze your credit.

Just remember that you are the only person who can protect your family’s future.