Did you get caught up

in the recent Equifax security breach? Then here is what you need to do.

From mid-May through July, sensitive personal information was exposed in a data breach at Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies. The breach reportedly affected 143 million Americans, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft as names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and other data were taken.

Equifax has set up a website for people to check whether their data was compromised, equifaxsecurity2017.com, and is offering a year of free credit monitoring.

But beyond that, Gulf Coast State College associate professor of cybersecurity Guy Garrett offers this advice for looking to secure their information.

Freeze your credit: A credit freeze restricts access to your credit report, which makes it more difficult to for identity thieves to open a new account. It does not affect your credit score.

Garrett said filling out a credit freeze form is easy and won’t affect daily purchases. If applying for a loan or credit card, the freeze can be temporarily lifted. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he said. Considering other breaches also exist, it could be good general practice.

Also a good idea: Check your credit every year via the top three agencies: Experian, Transunion and Equifax. Some advisers say every four months, check a different agency. Be wary of false emails: A hack like the Equifax one presents a golden opportunity for email scammers looking to take advantage. A fraudulent email could say, “Did you know about the Equifax breach? Click this link for protection,” Garrett said. If people received one of these emails, he said to get rid of it: “There will be fraud. There probably already is.

“... Equifax is not going to contact you,” he said. “You have to contact them.”