A recent post from the Watauga Democrat details the recent Equifax data breach, and Computer Information Systems and Supply Chain Management Professor Dawn Medlin weighs in.
On Thursday, Sept. 7, Equifax, one of three major nationwide credit reporting companies, announced that 143 million Americans — and nearly 5 million North Carolinians — could be affected by a data breach.
The Equifax hack is now considered the largest credit data breach in history, but the initial shock factor was limited, as data suggests these types of hacks are becoming increasingly common.
"Yes, it's rare that you have that many records in one place that contain all of that data, but a large data breach is actually pretty typical today," said Dawn Medlin, professor of computer information systems and supply chain management at Appalachian State University.
"Look at hospital records or education institutions, and you start to see this pattern of hundreds of thousands of records that are exposed. There's just too much information out there and it continues to grow."
According to reports from the Identity Theft Resource Center, data breaches increased 40 percent from 2015 to 2016, with the number of U.S. data breaches tracked in 2016 hitting an all-time record high of 1,093.
The most unfortunate side to all of this is that although someone may have never used Equifax, the credit reporting agency could still have anyone's personal information.
"Even if we didn't sign on or sign up for this service, it's like we're forced to participate — it's not a choice," said Medlin. "We didn't give out the information ourselves, but it's being given by banks and other places that capture sensitive, personal information."
Medlin said the best thing to do about the Equifax breach is to assume you have been impacted, and to take the proper safety precautions.
Equifax hack affects millions of Americans
