Gail MarksJarvis: What you need to do in the wake of the Equifax data breach

The massive data breach reported by Equifax this week will leave millions of Americans at risk of identity theft for the rest of their lives.

The credit monitoring company said Thursday that the breach may have exposed the Social Security numbers, birthdays, addresses and phone numbers of 143 million consumers.

While Equifax has offered to give people a year of free credit monitoring, that falls far short of what most consumers need