In addition, credit card numbers for 209,000 USA consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 US consumers, were accessed. In the same hack attack, Equifax lost almost 209.000 consumers credit card numbers and so far the unspecified number of driver licenses, but an alleviating circumstance is that no intrusions on “core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases” at Equifax were discovered.
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Equifax gets its information without you even knowing from banks, lenders, credit card companies, and retailers. What’s worse is that the bulk of the information, such as social security numbers, birthdays, addresses and other personal details, is far more valuable than the stolen credit card information. When signing up for free credit monitoring, language in the terms of agreement made it appear that users forfeited rights to participate in any potential class action lawsuits. Last year, Yahoo, whose web assets were acquired by Verizon Communications Inc. earlier this year, disclosed a 2014 breach that affected at least 500 million customer accounts.
The three “sold a small percentage of their Equifax shares, ” Ines Gutzmer, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based company, said in an emailed statement.
An information page for US users requires them to enter their name and last six digits of their social security numbers to determine if their social security number has been stolen, but nothing exists for United Kingdom users yet. At that point you’ll be given a date when you can return to the site and sign up for the service.
Zafar said he tested out the site with random sequences of six digits and last names several times and received different messages. But Equifax and other credit agencies usually charge a fee.
Despite these early losses, Equifax employees anxious about their retirement savings can take comfort by looking to other companies that have weathered data breaches.
There’s some comfort in the fact that Silicon Valley’s tech giants generally seem way more trustworthy than your typical credit reporting agencies, which have at times been comically hostile to the interests of consumers.
Hackers hit Equifax, a credit reporting agency that rates and tracks the financial history of consumers. Failing to warn customers they are at increased risk for identity theft is inexcusable. Either way you won’t have to call all three services, if you place an alert through one company, the others will be notified. Just ask John Podesta. The U.S. government can still see someone’s credit during a freeze, but creditors can’t, reports Bankrate.com.
Here’s how to freeze your credit.
Clark said a credit freeze is the only answer in this case. McGonnigal alleges he has “recently had four credit accounts opened in his name without his authorization”. So each time you apply for a credit card, mortgage or loan, you need to lift the freeze a few days beforehand.
“It’s a pretty extreme measure, but when 143 million people have been exposed like this, I think you have to take it”, Ulzheimer said. The same banks that furnish much of the bureaus’ credit data also use it to make lending decisions.
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If you are among the 143 million consumers with compromised data due to the massive Equifax breach, you might have spent the weekend making sure your identity had not been stolen.
