Given the size of the breach, representing 44 percent of the entire U.S. population, experts say that at this point, people should just assume their information was compromised.
“Do your own due diligence to see if there has already been any damage,” said Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst for CreditCards.com. He recommends getting your credit reports from all three main credit reporting firms, checking bank and credit card statements and report any anomalies.
Equifax did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
In addition to the website issues, the solution being offered by Equifax may do little to prevent fraudsters from opening new credit lines in a victim’s name.
The company’s identity theft protection and credit file monitoring allows you to put a lock on your Equifax report to prevent it being pulled by a lender, among other services. Yet some lenders turn to the other two national credit reporting firms, TransUnion or Experian, when they receive credit or loan applications.
“The problem is that the service Equifax is giving away only allows you to lock down Equifax, not the other two,” said John Ulzheimer, a credit expert and president of The Ulzheimer Group in Atlanta.
And Equifax’s offer of free monitoring may not be best bet: The terms and conditions require users to resolve disputes through arbitration, and ban them from participating in class-action lawsuits. Though that fine print gives consumers the ability to opt out by notifying the company in writing within 30 days, many people may not see it, Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, said in a statement.
Putting a lock on a credit report basically means a lender cannot access it to check on your credit score or history, which means they won’t approve the application. You can unlock it temporarily if you need to apply for credit or a loan.
Ulzheimer said you would need to put a lock on your reports from the TransUnion and Experian to cover all your bases.
Putting a lock on your credit report — and unlocking it — typically comes with a fee ranging from $5 to $10, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Alternatively, you can put a 90-day fraud alert on your credit reports, which is free. To do this, you need to only alert one credit reporting company, which in turn is legally obligated to share that alert with the others.
“The alert means that any lender has to contact you and verify that you’re the one applying and it’s not fraudulent,” Ulzheimer said.
Data exposed in the breach, which was discovered July 29, include names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses and some driver’s licence numbers, according to the company.
“Those types of personal data are the crown jewels for fraudsters,” Ulzheimer said.
(Kelli B. Grant contributed to this report.)