Financial Planning Focus – Happy Anniversary? One Year After the Equifax Data Breach
On September 7th, 2017, credit reporting agency Equifax announced the largest cybersecurity breach in history, affecting over 145 million American consumers. Looking at a 1-year chart of Equifax’s stock price, it’s almost as if the breach never happened. Despite the vast amount of sensitive information stolen and public outcry when the breach was announced, there has been little government action against the company, beyond a handful of Congressional hearings and a few insider trading lawsuits. The company would like you to forget all about their woeful negligence, and so do the criminals who hacked their way into Equifax’s system.
You may think that if nothing has happened with your stolen information by now, you’re in the clear. That is exactly the mindset the Equifax hackers want you to have. With the one year of free credit monitoring Equifax offered in the wake of the breach about to expire, the perpetrators are hoping your guard is down so that they can open credit cards, take out loans, or file fraudulent tax returns in your name.
As recommended in our article last September, we strongly encourage you to do the following:
- Obtain a free copy of your credit report from the three reporting agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – at www.annualcreditreport.com.
- Monitor your bank, credit card, and investment statements closely, and notify us immediately if you suspect being the victim of identity fraud.
- Place freezes on your credit with the three reporting agencies. Effective September 21st, a federal law mandates that freezes and one-year fraud alerts must be offered free-of-charge.
Feel free to contact us if you have questions or would like more information.
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* Any conclusions presented or hypotheticals presented are based upon facts derived from publicly available information, and are also based on certain assumptions, including that there are no additional changes to current law, and that demographic information regarding retirement accounts also remains unchanged. Further, hypothetical scenarios presented are solely presented for the purposes of demonstrating available retirement options, and do not include any information, analysis, or conclusions regarding other areas of an individual’s financial future.
*Certain information presented includes facts and analysis the accuracy of which is dependent upon current regulations regarding taxes remaining unchanged. Changes in tax law or other rules could materially, and adversely, affect any financial or retirement plan. Therefore, no person reading this material should accept this information as investment advice.
*Some information in this presentation is gleaned from third party sources, and while believed to be reliable, is not independently verified.