Between May and July of this year, cyber criminals sucessfully accessed the Social Security numbers and personal financial information of millions of Americans, and even many Canadian and UK residents.
Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting bureaus, discovered the breach on July 29, but only recently disclosed the breach to the public. Now, as Equifax scrambles to figure out what went wrong and how to handle the overwhelming public outrage and anxiety since the reveal of the breach, nearly every American is wondering how much of their information is now out in the wild–and more importantly, what they can do to protect themselves from identity theft.
Though many of us are on high alert for things like new loans and credit cards appearing on our reports, few may realize how risky such a breach is for Social Security beneficiaries and soon-to-be beneficiaries.
At The Seniors Center Blog, we’re discussing how this breach could affect Social Security recipients, how cyber thieves could potentially use this breach to steal benefits, and what retirees can do to keep their money safe.
