Staff reports 8:40 a.m.
Saturday, September 9, 2017 8:40 am
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CONCORD - New Hampshire's Attorney General announced on Friday that his office has been given notice by Equifax, Inc. of a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting the sensitive information of approximately 622,558 New Hampshire residents.
In Maine, some 520,000 people in the state potentially had their names, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth and in some instances, driver's license numbers, breached.
Nationally, 143 million U.S. consumers may have had their personal information compromised.
Equifax's computerized data files were compromised between mid-May and July, 2017. The information accessed through this breach included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver's license numbers, according to the release from New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald.
In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 consumers, were accessed. Equifax has established a dedicated website, www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. Once on that website, people can determine if their information was exposed.
To do this officials advise you click on the "Potential Impact" tab and enter your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number. Be sure you are on a secure computer as your Social Security number is sensitive information.
The site will tell you if you've been affected by this breach.
Affected U.S. consumers can get a year of free credit monitoring and other services. The site will give you a date when you can come back to enroll. Write down the date and come back to the site and click "Enroll" on that date. You have until November 21, 2017 to enroll.
You also can access frequently asked questions at the site. Equifax has established a dedicated call center and can be reached at 866-447-7559. The call center is open every day (including weekends) from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. eastern time.
The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office will be looking further into the facts and circumstances of this security breach. All security breach notices required to be filed with the Attorney General are available at the DOJ website: https://www.doj.nh.gov/consumer/security-breaches/index.htm.
The Attorney General also has a consumer information line - 888-468-4454. Consumers with questions about protecting their identity and other consumer protection questions are encouraged to call.