Equifax Hack Could Impact 143 Million U.S. Consumers

Equifax

1 of the 3 United States credit reporting services - Equifax - was hacked. The company says that they discovered the hack on July 29, 2017. They publicly disclosed that there was a data breach on August 29, 2017 - approximately one more later. Should we be concerned?

If you have credit and have a U.S. credit card, you may have some reason to be concerned. It is estimated that about 143 million people could be affected by this data breach. According to the Equifax website, they also accessed some UK and Canadian residents' information.

Hackers gained access to American Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, birth dates, credit card numbers, and addresses, among other user credit data stored by Equifax - such as credit history, past loans, and credit-worthiness.

Source: "What you need to know about the Equifax data breach" The Washington Post. Accessed: 9/9/17

This data breach is particularly troubling to Equifax, as it is supposed to keep credit data secure.

You may be asking one of the following questions:

• How do I know if my credit information was stolen from Equifax?
• How to find out if you're affected by the Equifax Hack?
• How to get free Equifax credit monitoring?

Find Out if Your Credit Information was Stolen by Hackers

Excellent question. I have an answer for you. Equifax has set up a website - according to The Washington Post article - the website is equifaxsecurity2017.com. I am not linking to it in this post, because it would go against the principles of this blog. I recommend that you verify yourself through Equifax, before using this website. This website should tell you if your data has been compromised in the latest data breach. I have independently verified that this website is working.

Please note before enrolling in Equifax free credit monitoring, you will be waiving your rights from any class action lawsuit against Equifax. This means you will lose any potential possibility of receiving a check from any lawsuit that arises against Equifax.

In checking with Snopes.com, there is a mixed answer if you are truly giving up your rights in a class action lawsuit.

Equifax Executives Quickly Sell $2 Million Equifax Company Stock

Three men have sold combined $2 Million of Equifax company stock, suggesting insider trading from knowledge received that Equifax had a data breach prior to this information being shared with the public (on August 1 & 2 in 2017)

According to the Snopes entry, these men were identified:

• Chief Financial Officer, John Gamble
• U.S. Information Solutions President, Joseph Loughran
• Workforce Solutions President, Rodolfo Ploder

This gives the impression of unethical business practices by these Equifax executives.