LINKEDIN PASSWORD SECURITY BREACH

Independent ID Fraud Expert available to comment on importance of having different passwords

www.equifax.co.uk

London, 7th June 2012 - Neil Munroe who is both External Affairs Director, Equifax and Chair of the Identity Fraud Communications Awareness Group (IFCAG), comments on the reported security breach of LinkedIn, where people’s passwords and user names are believed to have hacked.

“For a number of years, the experts have been urging people not to have one password for all their different online activities”, said Neil Munroe. “But this breach of LinkedIn brings this issue into sharp focus.”

“Many people will initially think it’s not a big concern because they don’t use LinkedIn for financial transactions. But the reality is that often the same user name and password are used for many of their online activities as they do for LinkedIn. And whilst it’s unclear what the hackers might be doing with the data they’ve stolen, it’s vital that LinkedIn users think about all the accounts they have that use the same user names and passwords.”

“For those concerned that some of their financial accounts may be at risk as a result of this breach, it’s also worth getting a copy of their credit report and signing up to an on-going monitoring service, like Equifax Identity Watch, so that should any unauthorised activity occur they will be alerted quickly.”

Tackling the threat of identity theft and fraud, Equifax Identity Watch Pro gives consumers unlimited, easy online access to their latest credit file, with automatic alerts within 24 hours of key changes to their credit report. It costs £7.50 per month. Or for just £2.99 per month, Equifax Identity Watch Lite makes monitoring a credit report easy by automatically alerting the individual within seven days of key changes.

Neil Munroe is available to provide further comment and advice on this issue. He can be contacted at the Equifax Press Office: HSL - Louise Fowler, Wendy Harrison or Clare Watson on 0208 977 9132 equifaxbtocteam@harrisonsadler.com

Neil Munroe Credentials

As a long-standing member of the Identity Fraud Communications Awareness Group, which has been in existence for more than 5 years, Neil has a broad understanding of the wide diversity of identity crimes that now appear to threaten the financial stability of consumers and businesses. In his capacity as External Affairs Director at Equifax he has been at the forefront of identifying new trends in ID fraud and theft, such as the risks in social networking. On behalf of Equifax, he is also involved with various ID fraud prevention initiatives being led by the National Fraud Authority.

He has knowledge of a wide range of ID fraud issues including:

• Account Take Over
• Deceased Fraud
• Bin Raiding
• ‘Phishing’
• Mobile Phone theft and account take over
• The risks of fraud through social networking
• Corporate Identity Fraud

He has also appeared on a number of high profile broadcast media including:

• BBC News
• ITV News
• Sky News
• Five News
• BBC Working Lunch
• BBC Inside Out
• This Morning
• BBC Newsnight
• Independent Radio News
• BBC Radio Five Live
• BBC Moneybox
• BBC Radio Four
• BBC Radio Manchester
• BBC Radio South East