Equifax Data Breach Settlement
A common theme of the past few months here at Strategic Advisory Services, LLC has been Cybersecurity. We hosted a webinar about a month ago detailing steps you can take to improve your own cybersecurity and explained just how easy it is to have a personal data breach.
In that presentation, we also discussed a few companies that have recently had huge data breaches that had some major implications - Equifax being one of those companies. In September of 2017, Equifax admitted that it had suffered a data breach that exposed personal information of over 145 million Americans. Here at the office, we reached out to clients to let them know that it would be prudent to see if they had been affected - and many had.
The good news is that now, Equifax has agreed to a settlement to help people affected by the data breach. According to the Federal Trade Commission, if you were affected by this breach, you can file a claim for the following:
Free Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection Services
Up to 10 years of free credit monitoring OR $125 if you decide not to enroll because you already have credit monitoring.
If you were a minor in May 2017, you are eligible for a total of 18 years of free credit monitoring
Cash Payments (Capped at $20,000 per person)
For expenses you paid as a direct result of the breach
For more information regarding the details of the settlement and breach, please follow this link to the FTC's website. If you do not know if you were affected by this breach, follow this link to Equifax's website that will determine if you were affected.
As always, if you have any questions regarding this topic or others we have discussed, don't hesitate to reach out to us!