TransUnion was just hacked, and it’s very disappointing to hear—especially because this is one of the “big three” credit bureaus that basically acts like a self-appointed guardian of our personal information. Right now, what we know is that 4 million+ people may have been affected, and it appears personal identifying information was exposed, including Social Security numbers. I’m not going to speculate on exactly how it happened because the details aren’t clear yet, but I am going to tell you what you can do today. My main takeaway is simple: freeze your credit at all three bureaus—TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. Even if you’re not sure you were impacted, freezing is one of the best immediate steps you can take to stop criminals from opening new accounts in your name. I also recommend putting credit monitoring in place. We generally recommend Aura because it’s what we’ve found to be best, and the alerts are fast, so if your SSN or other sensitive info shows up where it shouldn’t (including the dark web), you’ll know quickly. What frustrates me is the system itself: private companies collect and monetize our data, and historically they haven’t safeguarded it the way they should. For now, all we can do is take action, monitor, and stay vigilant.