Pub. 16 2017-2018 Issue 3

N E W J E R S E Y C O A L I T I O N O F A U T O M O T I V E R E T A I L E R S I S S U E N O . 4 , 2 0 1 7 10 new jersey auto retailer NADA Director’s MESSAGE | BY RICHARD A. DESILVA The Equifax Data Breach – What Dealers Should Know Equifax is one of three nationwide credit-reporting agencies that track and rate the financial history of consumers. Equifax recently announced a major breach of the data it stores and news coverage of the breach has been widespread. Equifax has stated that information from as many as 143 million people in the United States was compromised. Given the number of people affected and the sensitive type of information exposed, dealers should understand the basics of the breach and what it means for their customers. In particular, dealership employees should recognize they are likely to get questions from customers about the breach and potentially see an increase in "credit freezes" and fraud alerts on customers’ credit reports. As a result, dealership personnel should review the FTC guidance available at https://www.ftc.gov/equifax-data-breach. The materials contained on this website will help dealership em- ployees better understand what they may encounter, what they should look for, and what steps they should take when facing a fraud alert or "frozen" credit report. If dealership personnel do get questions, it is important to first explain that the reported breach occurred at Equifax, and does not involve the dealership, data stored at the dealership, or dealer- ship processes. Dealership personnel can also point consumers to the FTC website listed above, which provides a link to the Equifax website where consumers can determine if their information is at risk and how to sign up for the free credit monitoring service provided by Equifax. The website also provides information about