County Chief Information Security Officer, T.J. Fields is urging us all to take more control of our information in credit reporting accounts in the wake of a security breach at Experian, one of the three major credit reporting bureaus.
The bad news is that for an undetermined period of time ending in December of 2022, identity thieves had the ability to bypass Experian security to view consumer’s credit reports, having only an individual’s address, birthday, name, and social security number. Some of this personal information may have been contained in an unrelated 2017 Equifax breach, which contained this information on more than 45 million adults. The good news is that the flaw in the Experian website that allowed the breach has been corrected and is no longer active. The breach provides a good reminder of the importance of keeping private data private, and the impact in the event of a privacy breach. Here are two recommendations to help protect yourself from data breaches: activating “freezes” on your credit reports and pulling your credit reports on a regular, periodic basis.
