erin-profile

By building best in class social and digital campaigns, I amplify brand love, audience engagement and most importantly--drive real business results. I am a seasoned storyteller and creative leader with deep experience in harnessing the rapidly evolving social media and pop culture landscape to gain ground in the attention economy.

Brand Marketing

Erin Wigger

A look at the long term impact of the Equifax data breach and how to protect yourself if your credentials are stolen



As more and more of our lives become digital, the prevalence of hacks and data breaches is increasing (Think Marriott, LinkedIn, and Yahoo). We are all aware of the big breaches, those with millions of credentials stolen; the ones that overnight paint themselves across a thousand headlines. Within hours the headlines are joined by think pieces from industry experts; then the often sheepish CEO does the rounds of broadcasters promising it won't happen again. 

And then the storm moves on. Another company suffers a major breach and the headlines change. Another CEO has to sit in the glare of a CNBC camera. But what about the people behind the millions of statistics? What is it like to have your data compromised, and how do you wrest back control? The numbers are so high it can be difficult to truly empathize or understand the personal impact on people’s lives.

Meet one such individual (they requested, and we respected their anonymity) who knows intimately what it feels like to be impacted by the Equifax breach in 2017, one of the biggest breaches in history with 147 million credentials stolen. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AFB0-UwZ_9s" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Here are four pieces of advice about how you can protect yourself if your credentials are stolen, from someone who has really been there.


1. **Lock your credit:** One common piece of advice is to place fraud alerts with credit agencies. However, despite doing this, the individual impacted still continued to receive multiple pieces of mail showing that credit cards had been applied for in their name. To ensure that this does not happen, go one step further and lock your credit until you need it.

2. **Stay on top of your mail:** Even if a letter looks like junk mail, open and read it to make sure that it’s not a fraud attempt. After the Equifax breach, the individual made sure that they checked every single letter. This resulted in dozens of fraudulent attempts to open credit in their name. After every instance, they would ring up the company to explain the situation, alongside filing reports with the FTC, IRS and the police.

3. **Make a note of everything:** It’s easy to become inundated with everything happening, so make sure you make a clear log of each communication. The individual wrote down every letter received, the date, and then the details of everyone they spoke with. This not only makes it easier to keep track for any future investigations but can also give back a sense of control over the situation.

4. **Use multi-factor authentication:** With the world we live in, it’s very likely that you may be the victim of a data breach one day. After the Equifax incident, the individual made sure that they used [multi-factor authentication whenever possible](https://auth0.com/docs/multifactor-authentication) to make sure criminals could not access email accounts or other personal databases. 


Equifax and the 147 Million: A Story from Behind the Headlines

eHk3ciM

I am the Group Manager, Developer Content at Okta, and a Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies and Angular. I'm passionate about identity, authentication, constant learning, and developer communities. As a developer advocate, engineer, mentor, and international speaker, I love learning from and sharing with other inhabitants of the tech space.

Group Manager, Developer Content

Kim Maida

Personal identifying information was compromised for 143 million Americans in a massive Equifax data breach from May to July, 2017.



## 143 Million Consumers Compromised in Equifax Data Breach

On September 7, 2017, consumer credit reporting agency [Equifax announced a data breach that potentially exposed personal data for 143 million US consumers](https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/). [Equifax](https://equifax.com) is one of the three largest American credit agencies, alongside [TransUnion](https://transunion.com) and [Experian](https://experian.com).

From mid-May through July 2017, criminals were able to access personal identifying information, including names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and some driver's license numbers. In addition, credit card numbers for 209,000 US consumers were compromised, as well as dispute documents for 182,000 people. During the investigation, Equifax also discovered that limited personal information for some UK and Canadian residents had also been accessed. The hack was discovered on July 29, 2017.

Almost half of all Americans may have been affected by this data breach. **Your information may have been compromised even if you haven't signed up to use Equifax.** The data breach of a credit reporting agency (CRA) such as Equifax is particularly insidious because many consumers are _not aware_ that their data is stored with a CRA. [Equifax and other CRAs acquire their data](https://blog.equifax.com/credit/how-do-credit-reporting-agencies-get-their-information/) from credit card companies, banks, retailers, auto and mortgage lenders, debt collectors, and public records in order to generate credit scores. You don't need to have personally signed up with a CRA to have your data stored with Equifax!

## What Should I Do?

You _can_ check to see if your data has been exposed by visiting [Equifax's 2017 Incident Potential Impact website](https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/) and clicking the "Check Potential Impact" button. You can fill in your last name and last six digits of your Social Security number to find out if your data has potentially been leaked and receive a date to come back to enroll in free credit monitoring for a year. The [Federal Trade Commission also has detailed instructions available here](https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do).

Another thing you should do is actively check your bank and credit card statements regularly. If you see any suspicious or unusual activity, report it immediately to your financial institution. Don't become complacent and stop checking a week or two after a breach. Staying aware and vigilant with your accounts is important at all times. [Unfortunately, large data breaches have occurred many times in the past](http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/technology/business/biggest-breaches-ever/index.html), and in the digital age, we should be as prepared as possible to face more in the future.

In addition, you can monitor your own credit by requesting a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major CRAs once a year. If requests are staggered between the agencies, you can check your credit once every four months. Alternatively, you may wish to use services such as [CreditKarma](https://www.creditkarma.com/) to obtain free scores to monitor your own credit. You can also [freeze your credit](http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/) if you choose. If you do this, make sure you freeze it with all three major CRAs, not just Equifax.

## Aside: Use Auth0 to Protect Your Users From Data Breaches

Auth0 provides [breached password detection](https://auth0.com/breached-passwords) that can be enabled simply and easily. The Auth0 security team maintains a database of third party breached credentials. This database is updated daily. On each login, user credentials are checked against the leaked passwords database. If a breach is suspected, the user is notified and cannot log in until they change the compromised password.

<video autoplay="" loop="" width="600">
  <source src="https://cdn.auth0.com/blog/breach/lock-2.m4v">
<img src="https://images.ctfassets.net/23aumh6u8s0i/3DpdlDPwLfrdGGb7RUQ6NU/d959326b776a71764727d5e3eae43c8a/lock"/>
</video>

Read about [Breached Passwords](https://auth0.com/breached-passwords) and [Anomaly Detection](https://auth0.com/docs/anomaly-detection) to learn more about how to protect users and their credentials with Auth0. You can also <a href="https://auth0.com/signup" data-amp-replace="CLIENT_ID" data-amp-addparams="anonId=CLIENT_ID(cid-scope-cookie-fallback-name)">sign up for a free Auth0 account and start protecting your users today</a>!



"equifax"