Hackers breach Equifax’s data putting personal information of millions at risk
According to the Better Qualified President Paul Oster, someone could be walking around right now, pretending to be you.
He says that everyone should be changing passwords and pins to their accounts after the reporting agency Equifax announced that 143 million people could be affected by a recent data breach in which hackers stole information, including addresses and social security numbers.
“What happened now is that that information is going to get sold on the black market and the people who buy that information are going to create false identities under your social security number,” says Oster. “So this is the time to change all your pins and passwords and change your information access to all your accounts at this point in time.”
Oster says people should not blame Equifax for the hack.
“No one can protect all of their data 100 percent. A lot of people are mad and say if they knew about this in May, July why are they telling us now? And that’s actually under the discretion and guidance of the federal law and enforcement agencies,” says Oster.
He says hackers are so sophisticated that they can disguise links as legitimate work emails, invoices, and documents.
“People think they get a link and they click on it and try to go back that it won’t affect them but the second you click on that, it’s over,” says Oster.
He recommends everyone checks their credit score, accounts and change their passwords and pins immediately.
Equifax also has a link on their website for consumers to determine if their personal information was impacted.
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