Late in the day, September 7, 2017, we were first learning of a cyber-security incident at Equifax Inc. that could potentially impact approximately 143 million U.S. consumers. Equifax has posted details about the unauthorized access. Although the company has found no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases, they are offering complimentary identity theft and credit file monitoring.

The Federal Trade Commission maintains a very robust website containing detailed information for consumers in all areas of privacy, identity, online security, and much more. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also posted some steps that the public can take to help protect their information from being misused as well as some ways to protect yourself after a data breach.

UPDATE: September 14, 2017

Equifax will not be calling you out of the blue!

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from Equifax and asking to verify your account information, hang up! It’s a scam!

Equifax will not be initiating phone calls to potential victims of the data breach. Don’t give out any personal information, don’t trust caller ID, and don’t participate in a robocall. Just hang up!

Here is a link to the Federal Trade Commissions website with more information. Click here.