143 Million Equifax Consumer Files Breached
Equifax, a provider of consumer credit scores, was just confirmed as a victim of a data breach. The incident resulted in 143 million customer files being compromised. Therefore, this is one of the biggest breaches in U.S. history, and the largest reported in 2017.
The hackers were infiltrating the company’s systems from May to July of this year. The consumer data compromised includes names, social security numbers, and in some instances, the customer’s driver’s license number. Hackers also obtained credit card information for 209,000 customers. Beyond U.S. customers, certain individuals located in Canada and the U.K. were also impacted.
It is unclear if the impacted customers have been notified, or what Equifax plans to do to fully remediate the situation. The company learned of the breach on July 29th, and has been working with a cyber security firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Equifax CEO, Richard Smith, made the following statement to Bloomberg,
“This is clearly a disappointing event for our company, and one that strikes at the heart of who we are and what we do. I apologize to consumers and our business customers for the concern and frustration this causes.”
Were You Impacted?
To find out if your personal information was compromised, you can visit Equifax’s Potential Impact page. Click on “Check Potential Impact”. You will need to enter your last name and the last six digits of your social security number. Upon doing so, you will be notified if your information was secure, or if they believe it was compromised. If there are concerns the data was compromised, you will see this on your screen:
If you get this message — you have the opportunity to enroll in the TrustedID Premier program. The program features include: Equifax credit report, credit monitoring by 3 credit bureaus, Equifax credit report lock, $1M in identity theft insurance, and social security number scanning.
To see if your data was potentially leaked, click here.
