The breach of the Equifax database, which exposed the personal credit history of over 140,000,000 individuals, has left consumers scrambling for answers and wondering what steps to take. While many experts continue to weigh in on the issue, and law firms begin lining up for those class actions lawsuits, you may still be wondering what you can do to mitigate the damage. No doubt an investigation by Congress will provide some relief, and many private companies like Credit Karma and Capital One are already reaching out to beleaguered consumers. As we wait for the cavalry to arrive, we’ve collected a summary of all the information you need to protect yourself and give voice to your fears and frustrations. What Happened? Equifax believes hackers accessed the company’s network sometime between May and July of this year, gaining access to the social security numbers and extensive credit history of 143 million Americans as well some citizens of Canada and the UK. The hack itself came to the company’s attention on July 29, when the intrusion was immediately curtailed. Somewhat suspiciously, three Equifax executives chose to sell almost $2 million in Equifax stock on August 1st and 2nd, almost a week before the company went public about the incident. On September 7th, Equifax alerted the public about the breach, also issuing a statement denying the three executives knew about the hack. By the next day, company shares lost more than 13% of their value. The following week, the Senate began initial inquiries into the extent of the incident, also searching for evidence of compromised government accounts. By September 14, the Equifax CEO had been called to testify before Congress and the Federal Trade Commission announced it would begin investigating the breach. Who’s affected? At this point, if...

With the presidential election only a few weeks away, questions swirl about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines. Today’s voting systems run the gamut from punch cards to touchscreens. This November, three-quarters of U.S. voters will cast a paper ballot, but the other 25% are triggering concern. As electronic voting machines get older and less secure, the question becomes: just how safe is our vote? Over at Wired, Brian Barrett investigates the vulnerabilities of America’s electronic voting machines. Though he makes sure to emphasize there’s “no evidence of direct voting machine interference to date,” he concedes the research is grim. Susceptibility to malware and denial of service attacks has repeatedly been demonstrated. In some cases, compromising an electronic voting machine could be as easy as jumping onto an unsecured Wi-Fi network. Just last year Virginia decertified 3000 WINVote touchscreen voting machines when serious security problems were exposed, including “a poorly secured Wi-Fi feature for tallying votes.” At the time, Jeremy Epstein, a computer scientist with SRI International, noted, ““anyone with even a modicum of training could have succeeded,” including someone within a half-mile of a polling pace outfitted with “a rudimentary antenna built using a Pringles can.” Hacking the Vote Aging operating systems provide the biggest opportunity for would-be hackers. As Barrett explains, most electronic voting machines use some variation of Windows XP, which hasn’t received a security patch in over two years. Unfortunately, most of the voting computers are at least a decade old, and just not equipped to deal with a sophisticated attack. “People weren’t thinking about voting system security or all the additional challenges that come with electronic voting systems,” Brennan Center’s Lawrence Norden tells Wired. “Moving to electronic voting systems solved a lot of problems, but created a lot of...