Protecting your identity - Equifax & Beyond!

As you may already be aware, Equifax had a data breach resulting in 143 million people having their Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, Credit cards, addresses and other personal information compromised.

This is the largest breach to date and because of the data compromised also makes it a significant threat.

In the interest of protecting your own credit and identity, you should consider immediately putting a freeze on your credit with all 3 bureaus (listed below).

You should also renew or obtain a US Passport in your name (with the information compromised, a criminal can obtain a false birth certificate and a passport in your name).

I personally froze my credit 3 years ago, and it offers a great peace of mind.

Below are links to the credit bureaus:

https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze

https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp

Here is a link on how to obtain a US Passport

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/apply.html

Lastly, if you are not currently using different and complex passwords for all your banking, financial and other sites, here is your wakeup call. Use an online password manager like LastPass and it will simplify your life when it comes to setting up and maintaining unique passwords.