143 million US consumers had their information compromised recently through the Equifax cybersecurity event. Below is information on what we’re doing to protect ourselves in light of this event (information provided from an article here).
- Visit this website to see if you were involved. I found that I (Tim) was involved, but my wife was not.
- Consider signing up for the free credit monitoring Equifax is offering through TrustID at this website. Equifax clarified by signing up for this, you are not required to waive your right to any class-action lawsuit related to this incident.
- The last and most effective way to protect yourselves is to freeze your credit. Usually there are fees to do this in the $10-$15 range per credit bureau, however, Equifax is waiving their fees. Contact info is below to do this:
Equifax
PO Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
www.equifax.com
888-766-0008
Experian
PO Box 9554
Allen, TX 75013
www.experian.com
888-397-3742
TransUnion
PO Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016
www.transunion.com
800-680-7289
SMB Security
This latest incident has made us grateful for our efforts to secure information we have here at SMB. Within the last two years we’ve upgraded our firewall, a SonicWALL TZ300 recommended by a local security firm, and our cloud storage provider to Box.com.
We chose Box.com because online security firms are using them for their superior security. They also work with the national regulators (FINRA) of investment firms like ours to ensure they have policies and procedures in place to protect our firm and our clients.
TD Ameritrade Security
We’ve also checked in with TD Ameritrade and reviewed their policies and procedures. As expected, they have a high level of security including firewalls to keep public servers separate from private servers, 128-bit encryption to keep eyes off sensitive information and anomaly detection to alert them of unusual behavior in accounts.
TD also has an Asset Protection Guarantee that says as long as clients are taking reasonable precautions to keep information safe…
“If you lose cash or securities from your account due to unauthorized activity, we’ll reimburse you for the cash or shares of securities you lost.”
We couldn’t be more pleased with this and gives us even more confidence in TD. I also have additional information on this topic I can send. Please let me know if you’d like more.
Thank you for reading,
Bruce Porter & Tim Porter, CFP®