Equifax Data Breach

On September 7^th, Equifax announced that 143 million people (nearly half of the U.S. population) identities have been compromised between May and July of this year. Stolen information includes names, social security numbers, birthdates, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and credit card numbers.

Equifax is rightfully being perceived as untrustworthy for hiding this breach for 6 weeks while three of their senior executives sold Equifax shares worth almost $1.8 million in the days following the discovery of the breach. Equifax is offering one year of free credit monitoring with another division of their own company called TrustedID. I recommend you DO NOT enroll with the Trusted ID, as its protection is minimal at best, based on the information stolen. If someone initially enrolled with TrustedID, they unknowingly agreed to submit complaints to arbitration and waive their rights to a class-action suit, or benefit from any settlement against the company. Immediate public pressure has forced a change in this policy to better benefit the victim, but ultimately this will affect them for a life-time.

Below is the link to know if your information was compromised. It requires you to enter your last name and the last six digits of your social security number. If you click the ENROLL button, it will automatically enroll you, another red-flag, as they have your personal information on file.

The link to check your breach status is:

Check to see if you have been compromised

In the short video below, Morgan Wright, U.S. State Department, Senior Antiterrorism Advisor, talks about the significance of this breach, why you shouldn’t use TrustedID and why he has selected IDShield (the service we provide) as the service of choice to handle Identity theft.

The magnitude of this breach and why use IDShield

EQUIFAX DATA BREACH LETTERS