Equifax data breach victim? The fight for your identity will last years

[steve2470]

http://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/credit/equifax-data-breach-victim-the-fight-for-your-identity-will-last-years


Protecting yourself from the Equifax data breach is not something that’s going to end tomorrow. Or next month. Or next year.

Crooks stole credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and addresses. They swiped birth dates and downloaded driver’s license numbers.

If cyber criminals have your personal information, there’s no limit — both in time and scope — to how they can use it. Avoiding identity theft and fraud is something you could be fighting for years to come.

Here’s what the bad guys can do with your data and what you should do to protect yourself.

With access to your Social Security number, address and birth date, a crook could take out a mortgage or open a credit card. Someone could even file a tax return for you, hoping to collect a refund.

more at link

[Le Gaucher]

1. Only solution is to Delink SSN with credit score. They should use a different universal ID

SSN has nothing to do with my credit history. It's a government id and should not be used for any other purpose

By default the credit bereaus could create a shared person level database that maintains this ID.

Optionally, they could provide a smart card or rsa type device that will change frequenty and mask the real universal ID.

We can mandate this as a law - and force those bastards to eat the cost. Provided their republican lap dogs allow it.

[sprinkleeninow]

3. It states right on my original card, 'Not for identification purposes.'

Medicare has yet to issue ID's with numbers that are not your SS one with alphabetical characters. They said they were, and I'm still WAITING!

I was an ID theft victim in 2011 involving two accounts. That alone was a royal butt pain.

[FSogol]

2. My office insures all the employees (and their spouses) against identify theft.

Luckily, I've never had to use it.