identity theft

How The Equifax Breach Could Affect Your Travels

How The Equifax Breach Could Affect Your Travels

What a nightmare. It’s bad enough that Equifax, one of the nation’s three largest credit bureaus, was badly hacked. The breach exposed critical data on more than 143 million U.S. consumers. What you may not know is that the Equifax hack could also ruin your next business trip or vacation — or worse.

How? Thieves can not only use your identity to take out new credit cards mortgages, and loans, even file tax returns in your name. By stealing your identity, criminals could also put a black mark on your traveler profile in databases maintained by the FBI, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both the TSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agencies.