Soon after the revelation, the stocks of Equifax plummeted 13 percent in aftermarket trading.
One of the largest credit score providers in the US – Equifax, has revealed that its security system was compromised in mid-May and July resulting in close to 143 million personal details of consumers getting exposed.
According to the official statement from Equifax Inc., hackers who broke into the database might have accessed details of its customers including names, social security number and in some cases, even the customers’ driving license number.
Soon after the revelation, the stocks of Equifax plummeted 13 percent in aftermarket trading.
More startling is the possibility that over 209,000 credit card numbers of US consumers and close to 182,000 duplicate personal details have also been exposed during to the security breach.
Other than the details of US citizens, Equifax announced that personal details of UK and Canadian citizens were also hacked and said that they are working closely with IK [ is it UK] and Canadian authorities to decide on the next step.
The breach came to light on July 29 after which Equifax sought the assistance of cyber security experts to analyze the extent of the unauthorized access.
The company claims that the hackers haven’t crept into the core consumer or commercial credit reporting database. None the less, the breach has been considered as one of the biggest data thefts in the US.
Towards the end of 2016, Yahoo also announced a similar security vulnerability that resulted in close to one billion user accounts being compromised since 2013, so did eBay that confirmed 145 million accounts were exposed to hackers. Both the firms asked its users to change their passwords following the rampant attack.
A spokeswoman for Equifax said they “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time.” According to an Equifax agent who spoke to Bloomberg News, they cannot, at this point in time, confirm who all have been hacked. “I am unable to tell you whether you are impacted,” agent identified as Kevin explained.
“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,” read an official release from Equifax.
Rick Smith, Chairman and CEO of Equifax has posted a video on YouTube, explaining to the consumers about what happened and how to move forward.
He said in the video that Equifax has established a dedicated website, www.equifaxsecurity2017.com, to help consumers determine if their information has been potentially impacted and to sign up for credit file monitoring and identity theft protection.