What You Need Know...

There's some bad news if you do business with consumer credit monitoring agency Equifax. Your sensitive personal info — including Social Security and drivers license numbers — may be in the hands of data thieves.

What to Do Now... 

• Go to Equifax's website to see if your data was compromised.
• Follow Consumer.gov's advice on what to do if the stolen data includes your information.
• Look into getting an identity protection service.

Every week seems to bring news of another case of ransomware.

It’s nasty stuff. Nasty enough that the US and Canada on Thursday issued a rare joint cyber alert warning about the recent surge in ransomware attacks, in which data is encrypted and crooks demand payment for it to be unlocked.