With Equifax’s recent hack, a large portion of U.S. citizens and residents personally identifiable information (PII) are out there and up for sale. Equifax is one of the three main credit reporting agencies so the data stolen includes your social security number, address, date of birth, etc… If you’re not affected, I think the following instructions are a good way to protect yourself in the future.

Notice: I am not a professional in this topic and have no authority to verify that these methods are bulletproof. I don’t think they are but they offer good steps towards protecting yourself. With all the data stolen, thieves can still get through to your financial and medical accounts. Monitoring your accounts and activity online is key to catch the ones that may have slipped through the cracks. I’ve just gathered this information so make sure to do your due diligence if something doesn’t make sense. If you’d like to add information or correct me, send the details at dev.logn@gmail.com with supporting evidence and I’ll update this document.

If you are affected and your data has been stolen, Equifax is providing you with a year of monitoring for your credit. In my opinion, monitoring will only alert you after the fact and after someone stole your identity, damaged your credit and financial future. Monitoring is also only free of charge for a year but a credit freeze will protect you until you lift it.

In order to preemptively protect yourself, you should put a freeze on your credit. This will prevent anyone (including yourself) from opening new lines of credit or doing credit checks. You’ll need to put a freeze with all the credit reporting agencies and you’ll be given a PIN which you can use to (temporarily) unfreeze your account later. Also note not to do this if you’re in the process of getting a car loan, a mortgage or having your credit checked. Wait until everything has been processing before placing a freeze. Lastly, it does not prevent you from getting your free annual credit report and does not prevent fraud against your current accounts.

How do I place a credit freeze?

  • Equifax: call 1-800-349-9960 or online

Using the Equifax online portal was painless and quick. I didn’t have to pay anything even though the data from their site says otherwise.

  • Experian: call 1-888-397-3742 or online

Experian was also quick and easy. The fee for placing the freeze (in New Mexico) was $10.51.

  • TransUnion: call 1-888-909-8872 or online

TransUnion was a bit more painful as I had to create an account first before I could place the freeze. On the upside, it was free.

I haven’t done anything with this one yet as I had never heard of them. I will need to do more research before taking any actions with them.

Similar to Innovis and haven’t taken any actions yet, until I do more research on this company.

Note that they might be fees associated with placing, temporarily lifting or removing credit freeze but they shouldn’t be more than $15, and I believe it is free if you are 65 and older. To me, they are worth the price.

Also, you should consider stopping prescreened offers of credit. Your mail (and emails) can be intercepted and hackers can accept these offers on your behalf. To stop them, call 888-5OPTOUT (888-567-8688) or go online https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t. You can opt out for 5 years or permanently.

How do I protect myself online?

Now that your credit is frozen, you still need to worry about your current accounts. For any financial, medical, personal business done online, you can safely assume that it can and will get hacked. Do not provide more information than required when filling out forms, whether online or on paper.

Use two-factor authentication for your online accounts, whether it is for your email, social media, banks, investments, medical, etc… Most companies are starting to provide this functionality. You should use an authenticator application, i.e. Google Authenticator (android and iOS). You could also use two-factor authentication via text message or email, but even though it is not the best way, it is better than nothing.

Do not re-use passwords! I can’t stress this enough, do not use the same password for your different accounts. Favor passphrases over simple passwords (see this comic for reference). I have been using a password manager: KeePass. A password manager allows you to create and manage passwords for all your different online accounts. You only have to remember one master password to open the safe. There are plenty of options, local and online and I leave it to the reader to do some research. Be aware that the online options can be and have been hacked in the past: see this article. Personally, I would favor solutions that are stored locally and not in the cloud.

What do I do if my identity gets stolen?

I am fortunate to not have had to go through this but a good place to start would be: https://www.identitytheft.gov/.

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