{"id":1642,"date":"2017-09-12T13:55:23","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T20:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bluewatercredit.com\/?p=1642"},"modified":"2017-09-12T13:55:23","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T20:55:23","slug":"equifax-data-breach-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluewatercredit.com\/equifax-data-breach-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Equifax Data Breach: The Facts and What to Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you have a credit report, there\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019re one of the 143 million American consumers whose sensitive personal information was exposed in a data breach at Equifax, one of the nation\u2019s three major credit reporting agencies.<\/p>\n

Here are the facts, according to Equifax. The breach lasted from mid-May through July. The hackers accessed people\u2019s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver\u2019s license numbers.<\/p>\n

Whether your information was exposed, U.S. consumers can get a year of free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection. The site will give you a date when you can come back to enroll. Write down the date and come back to the site and click \u201cEnroll\u201d on that date. You have until November 21, 2017 to enroll.<\/p>\n

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Consumers quickly pointed out that Equifax\u2019s terms of service<\/a> include a consumer-unfriendly piece of legalese known as an arbitration clause, which bans parties from joining class action lawsuits. If a court finds that Equifax was negligently lax with cybersecurity, people bound by the terms might be locked out of benefits, unless they file a new suit.<\/p>\n

Equifax issued a new statement Sunday further clarifying its stance on the arbitration clause. “To confirm, enrolling in the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection products that we are offering as part of this cybersecurity incident does not prohibit consumers from taking legal action,” Equifax said. The company said it has now removed the arbitration language from the terms of use on its data breach notification site, www.equifaxsecurity2017.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are steps to take to help protect your information from being misused. Visit Equifax\u2019s<\/a> website to see if you were impacted. You also can access frequently asked questions<\/a> at the site.<\/p>\n

Per the FTC, here are some other steps to take to help protect yourself after a data breach:<\/strong><\/p>\n