NEW YORK (AP) —    There’s no way around it: The news from credit reporting company Equifax that 143 million Americans had their information exposed is very serious.

The crucial pieces of personal information that criminals may need to commit identity theft — Social Security numbers, birthdates, address histories, legal names — were all obtained.

For consumers, it may be time to take even more extreme measures to lock down their information, outside of routine advice like checking your credit reports regularly and seeing if there are any abnormal transactions on your accounts.

The strongest possible option a person can take immediately is placing what’s known as a credit freeze on their credit files with the major credit bureaus. That makes it impossible to open new accounts and bank cards — for thieves as well as yourself.

Meanwhile…

A security expert says a website created by credit monitoring company Equifax to help its customers find out if their personal information was stolen after a massive data breach raises its own security questions.

Georgia Weidman, the founder and chief technology officer for security firm Shevirah, says the website Equifax created looks like the kind of website set up by attackers to trick people into disclosing information.

Weidman says it’s teaching people “entirely the wrong things about using the internet securely.”

Weidman says she’s troubled by Equifax’s approach to security generally, including reports that it didn’t respond to basic scripting bugs it was warned about last year.

The website is , https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/ . Equifax says consumers can also call 866-447-7559 for more information about the breach.