By Kevin Wrenn on Sep 28, 2017
As most of you know by now one of the nation's three major credit agencies was breached by hackers from mid May through July of this year. Approximately 143 million Americans' sensitive personal information was compromised by this breach. Since Anchor Capital uses Charles Schwab as its custodian, our clients' invested assets are protected under Schwab's Security Guarantee, which states that Schwab will cover 100% of any losses in any of your Schwab Accounts due to unauthorized activity. To ensure your protection under this guarantee make sure to safeguard your account access information and report any unauthorized transactions as quickly as possible. If your information was compromised by the Equifax breach, the Federal Trade Commission has posted the following recommendations:
- Consider signing up for the free credit monitoring services Equifax is offering
- Get a free credit report from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action and check any accounts or charges you do not recognize
- Consider placing a credit freeze. This will make it harder for anyone to open a new account in your name. If you place a freeze you will have to lift the freeze before applying for a new card, cell phone, or any service that requires a credit check.
- Try to file your taxes early. Tax Identity Theft happens when someone uses your social security number to get a tax refund.
- Check your credit reports on a regular basis. Each of the three major credit agencies allows one free report every year.
If your credit card information was exposed:
- Contact your bank or credit card company to cancel your card and request a new one.
- Review your transactions regularly
- If you have automatic payments set up update them with your new card number
In addition to the FTC's recommendations we also recommend the creation of strong passwords and the use of a password management system which will help generate strong and unique passwords. Dashlane and LastPass are two companies that provide these services. For more information on the Equifax credit breach click on the links provided below.
https://www.equifax.com/personal/?/
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do
