Last week, the credit reporting company Equifax reported a massive data security breach that compromised the personal information of around 143 million Americans. Residents of the United Kingdom and Canada were also impacted.
According to the company’s website, “Criminals exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files.” Personal information including names, Social Security Numbers, birthdates, addresses, drivers license numbers and some credit card numbers were accessed by cyber criminals. The breach occurred between May and July this year and was discovered July 29. Equifax is taking steps to investigate the breach and reported it to authorities.
Equifax is a credit reporting company that monitors the financial situation of consumers. As one of only 3 national credit reporting companies, Equifax maintains data of a large number of Americans on everything from loans and bank accounts to employer information and credit history.
Equifax has established a website to help individuals determine if their information has been potentially impacted and to sign up for credit file monitoring and identity theft protection. The website can be accessed at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com.