Equifax Breach
On Sept. 7, Equifax Inc. announced a breach of data impacting about 143 million U.S. customers. The information affected includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and some driver’s license numbers.
In response to the breach, Equifax has created a website www.equifaxsecurity2017.com to help consumers determine whether their information has been compromised and is offering identity theft protection. Equifax is also offering a year of free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance that you can sign up for on that site if you're a US resident.
If your information could have been compromised in the breach, you might also want to consider paying for additional years of credit monitoring after Equifax’s free year expires. Attackers may have better luck abusing the leaked data in earnest after that first year is over and many potential victims lose free monitoring.
You should also keep a close eye on your finances. Consumers should remain calm and be cognizant of their personal credit report and activity. Check for notifications to see if new credit applications have been filed on your behalf, and monitor your accounts for adverse action. One thing that is recommended by security expert Brian Krebs is to enable a security freeze.
(http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-em...)
Because of all the recent news, this breach has received you can most certainly expect that scammers will take advantage of this and launch new phishing emails, phone calls and texts trying to trick individuals into giving away even more information.
Cybersecurity is our shared responsibility always STOP, THINK before you click or respond to any type of electronic communication.