A cyber security breach may have impacted around 143 million Equifax customers, mainly in the United States, with some British and Canadian customers affected. Equifax, which has headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, is a “global information solutions” provider specializing in helping individuals and businesses make informed financial decisions. The company’s database includes “data contributed from more than 7,100 employers”. The compromised data could include Social Security numbers, addresses and dates of birth. However, the company’s key commercial credit databases were not impacted.
News of the breach led Rick Smith, Equifax’s Chairman and CEO, to make a recorded announcement on
Youtube. In his statement he suggested, “We recently discovered a cybersecurity incident involving consumer information. Once discovered, Equifax acted immediately to stop the intrusion. We apologize to our consumers and business customers for the concern and frustration this causes, and are conducting a thorough review of our overall security operations.”
The breach occurred between mid-May and July 2017 and it might have reached credit card details of around 200,000 of the company’s customers. Equifax will work with American, British and Canadian regulators to address the issue further. It is potentially one of the largest breaches experienced in the United States and follows major breaches at Yahoo (1 billion user) and eBay (140 million) in recent years.
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