State’s AG cites perils of Equifax

STATE ATTORNEY General Eric Schneiderman is urging New Yorkers to take extra precautions in the wake of a massive hack into Equifax’s bank of sensitive client information.

The credit reporting agency reported the data breach Thursday — revealing that hackers accessed names, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers of 143 million Americans.

More than 8 million New Yorkers are believed to have been affected.

Schneiderman, who has launched an investigation into the breach, is encouraging people to use the following measures to protect themselves from further identity breaches: l Check whether personal data were compromised by visiting a website set up by the company. l Use annualcreditreport.com to detect unauthorized activity that could signal identify theft. l Place a credit freeze on files to make it harder for impostors to open new accounts under your name. l Keep a close eye on existing credit card and bank accounts and immediately report unauthorized activity and charges. l File taxes early to mitigate the risk of tax fraud — which happens when a scammer uses someone else’s Social Security number to get a tax refund. l Pay close attention to correspondence from the IRS.