The advice follows a week of headlines about data breaches including Home Office data on offenders lost on a memory stick, bank and credit card customer data found on a server sold on EBay and insurance customer data thrown away.
Equifax believes that a more prepared and pro-active approach to customer communication and management is required when a breach does occur.
It recommends that to protect their business, employees and customers, organisations need to develop a data breach response plan.
Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, said: "Increased focus by the media, regulators and consumers means the problem of data breaches isn't going to disappear for businesses.
"The reality of the matter is that ID fraud has become an immensely sophisticated and lucrative crime. And, as such, the issue of personal data security needs to come much higher up the agenda for all UK organisations."
A credit reference survey last year revealed that 65% of those asked would never buy again from an organisation that did not keep their personal information safe and 52% would go out of their way to spread the word of an organisation's failings.
Equifax highlights two key components of a good data breach plan: customer communication and the role of protector.
In terms of customer communication, Equifax claims that in the event of a data breach the future of an organisation rests on how well they maintain customer and employee trust.
Organisations should also take the role of protector by offering customers free credit reports and monitoring services to help them protect themselves from the risk of ID theft as a result of a breach.
In addition they can offer alerts by email and SMS to include any changes to key data such as address, unauthorised searches, new accounts opened and electoral roll data.