In early September 2017, one of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, announced a major data breach which compromised the personal information (names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, social security numbers and dates of birth) of 143 million Americans. According to the FTC, the breach lasted from mid-May through July of this year.

Find Out More and Protect Yourself

How do you know if you’ve been affected and what can you do going forward?

• Watch this short CNBC video interview of Morgan Wright, US State Department Senior Anti-terrorism Advisor, regarding the serious nature of the breach and what protection he’s using to protect his identity:http://tinyurl.com/BreachExpert 
• Equifax has a website set up where you can find out if your data was affected: equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact . Check the data for each family member.
• If you find that your information may have been compromised, you might consider placing a temporary fraud alert on your credit file by going to experian.com/fraud or calling 888-397-3742.  Experian will pass along your request to the other two major credit bureaus so you only have to do it once.  There is no charge and will provide you with a PIN number needed to open a new credit account.
• Consider purchasing a data protection plan to protect you and your family members. We recommend IDShield, which provides powerful 24/7 proactive monitoring and is also surprisingly affordable.

Have Additional Questions about Identity Theft?

Questions? Go to www.legalshieldassociate.com/idt/craigfreeman or give Craig Freeman a call at (330) 233-3525.

Craig Freeman understands the changing landscape of cyber-attacks and what businesses and employees can do to protect themselves. Craig has been researching the identity theft epidemic for more than five years.  Combined with SACS Consulting best in class training and protection, Craig assists business owners in mitigating risk and keeping employees productive.