You Could Be at Risk of a Data Breach
As you’ve probably heard, Equifax, a leading credit reporting company, reported a data breach event that potentially impacts 143 million North American consumers. Equifax Canada has now confirmed that 100,000 Canadians were impacted in this cybersecurity breach and that personal information such as names, addresses, social insurance numbers (SIN) and, in limited cases, credit card numbers, may have been exposed. If you think you may be one of the unlucky people impacted by this, we encourage you to:
Read and keep the notice from Equifax Canada
If you were impacted by the breach, you should receive a notice in the mail from Equifax Canada. Read it carefully to see what information was exposed and how, and keep this notice for your records. The notice provides a way to prove that the data was compromised through no fault of yours.
Review your affected account
You will want to review your account statements and credit reports. Immediately report any unauthorized activity to your financial institutions and monitor your personal information. For impacted Canadians, Equifax Canada is offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection for 12 months.
To contact Equifax Canada about the cybersecurity incident, please call 1-866-828-5961 or email [email protected].
These are just a few suggestions. There are many more great resources available for victims of Identity theft: