Equifax Cyberattack: Is Your Credit Record Safe? Time to Revert to Cash!

Equifax Says Cyberattack May Have Affected 143 Million Customers –New York Times
“Equifax, one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, said on Thursday that hackers had gained access to company data that potentially compromised sensitive information for 143 million American consumers, including Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. The attack on the company represents one of the largest risks to personally sensitive information in recent years, and is the third major cybersecurity threat for the agency since 2015….’This is about as bad as it gets,’ said Pamela Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit research group. ‘If you have a credit report, chances are you may be in this breach. The chances are much better than 50 percent.’….Credit card numbers for 209,000 consumers were stolen, while documents with personal information used in disputes for 182,000 people were also taken….’On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of risk to consumers, this is a 10,’ said Avivah Litan, a fraud analyst at Gartner….Using the data stolen from Equifax, identity thieves can impersonate people with lenders, creditors and service providers, who rely on personal identity information from Equifax to make financial decisions regarding potential customers.”