How to Turn the Equifax Breach into a Teachable Moment

You can’t imagine a more enticing target to hack than one of the three credit reporting agencies. As you have no doubt heard at this point, over half of America has had the “crown jewels” of their financial history stolen. This will be a story that will unfold over months not days as Congress is sure to haul executives up to the Hill for hearings to learn a few things from company executives including:

• http://midequalitygroup.co.uk/events/2025-01-06/ Why did it take months for the company to let the public know about this hack?
• http://fft3.com/qindex.php?daksldlkdsadas=1 Why did the company executives sell stock immediately after finding out the hack (and before they notified the public)?
• Why did the company have such weak security on such important information?

We all know that credit reports and credit scores can be difficult topics to teach. Why not use this current event to have students research and complete a Scavenger Hunt that I created?

But first, a few high-quality resources that your students can use to complete the worksheet:

• Equifax Press Release
• PBS Newshour video (4:35): Did the Equifax hack put your personal data at risk? 
• NY Times article: 4 things you should do about the Equifax hack
• Audio from NPR (3:06): Credit Reporting Agency Equifax Reveals Massive Hack

I wanted to see for myself, whether my information was safe. So I went to www.equifaxsecurity2017.com, and found I am likely one of the 143 million. Why would I ever enroll in their TrustedID Premier service, even if it is free? They can’t be trusted. My strategy going forward: Freeze my credit reports (which I had already done and blogged about almost three years ago after a series of high profile hacks, change passwords for some of my key financial accounts, and keep an eye on credit card and bank accounts for the foreseeable future.

More on teachable moments:

Rising Rates? Don’t Miss This Teachable Moment

Three Big (Teachable) Obstacles to Sound Money Decisions

This post also appears on the NextGen Personal Finance blog.

Posted in Youth on September, 2017