by
Joshua D. Scroggin
A potential 143 million U.S. consumers have had their sensitive data — including birth dates, credit card and Social Security numbers — exposed in a cyber attack against the credit reporting agency Equifax.
Though the attack does not directly affect CoastHills, there's a chance you may be affected. Follow these five steps to help keep your accounts safe and help protect yourself from fraud and identity theft:
1. Go to www.equifaxsecurity2017.com to check if your data was compromised. The site will ask for your last name and a portion of your social security number to verify whether you have been affected.
2. If your data has been exposed, contact all three credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion andEquifax) to set a fraud alert on your account. This will make it harder for an identity thief to open accounts in your name.
3. Monitor your credit report on an ongoing basis. If you have a CoastHills Super Checking account, you can easily monitor your credit report, set up credit alerts and total identity monitoring for your entire household for FREE by registering and logging in to www.idprotectme247.com.
4. Reset passwords, PIN codes and other credentials on accounts that may be vulnerable.
5. If you haven't already, establish multi-factor authentication on your financial and web accounts. That way, if someone tries to log in to your account from an unfamiliar computer or device, you will get a text or email alert to the activity.
If you have any questions about logging in to www.idprotectme247.com or if you would like more information on Super Checking and IDProtect, please call us at (800) 262-4488.