Category Archives: credit monitoring

Equifax fined maximum penalty under 1998 UK data protection law

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Credit monitoring giant Equifax has been hit with the maximum penalty from the UK’s data protection agency for its actions related to the company’s massive data breach. The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office issued a fine of £500,000 (about $664,000) for failure to protect information tied to 15 million U.K. residents. Equifax announced in October 2017 that along with the 145 million U.S. residents impacted by the breach, a file containing 15.2 million records on U.K. citizens was also “attacked.” That number included over 693,000 U.K. residents that had their email address, phone number, driver’s license number or username and password combination stolen. The fine ties back to the U.K. Data Protection Act of 1998, a law that has been superseded by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Equifax breach occurred prior to GDPR’s activation. The fines under GDPR would be extensively larger. Under the new law, companies […]

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Please don’t buy this: identity theft protection services

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Identity theft protection services promise to have your back against cybercriminals looking to steal your data. But they don’t actually stop them from taking your identity. Are they worth it, then? We say no.
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Equifax: Hackers got personal data on Brits, too

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Hackers who stole Social Security numbers and other poorly secured personal data for 143 million Americans from Equifax also got away with the personal information of nearly 700,000 British citizens as well, the credit reporting company said Tuesday. A computer file containing 15.2 million records of British citizens was “attacked” during the hack, which began in May, Equifax UK Ltd. said in a statement. “Regrettably this file contained data relating to actual consumers as well as sizeable test datasets, duplicates and spurious fields, ” the statement went on. The company said it would be writing to a total of 693,665 consumers whose email address, phone number, driver’s license number or username and password combination had been stolen. They will be offered free credit monitoring and other identity protection tools. The exact breakdown is: 12,086 consumers had an email address associated with their Equifax.co.uk accessed. 14,961 consumers had portions of their Equifax.co.uk membership […]

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FBI issues flash alert on Apache Struts vulnerability

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Law enforcement is just beginning to understand the damage caused by a single, highly publicized software vulnerability that was labeled as a key reason credit reporting agency Equifax suffered a disastrous data breach earlier this year. The FBI is asking for help from the private sector to identify and track a group that recently was found to target older versions of the open source web application framework Apache Struts. The vulnerability, which was originally disclosed in March, remains present inside hundreds of corporate networks. Apache Struts is especially popular within the U.S.’s three big credit reporting agencies. More than 145 million people were affected by the Equifax breach. This call for information comes in the form of an FBI Flash alert sent Sept. 29 and obtained by CyberScoop. The flash alert, labeled “TLP:AMBER,” provides technical indicators related to a recent, unnamed corporate breach involving a hacker exploiting a remote code execution vulnerability in Apache […]

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Banking-focused phishing scheme hits inboxes in wake of Equifax breach

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A group of hackers has been sending specially tailored phishing emails to online banking customers, stoking fears among an online population that is increasingly concerned with how cybercriminals could leverage the data stolen from credit monitoring giant Equifax. This specific phishing campaign, identified by U.S. technology firm Barracuda Networks, focuses on a string of recent banking-related emails that began to hit inboxes shortly after Equifax was originally breached, but several weeks before the incident was first publicly disclosed Sept. 7. The campaign remains active. Although the scheme’s timing has caught researchers’ attention, it remains unclear whether the criminal operation was directly related to the Equifax breach. Security experts have warned that the Equifax breach could lead to fraudulent credit card charges for affected individuals. As a result, it’s no surprise that hackers are actively attempting to impersonate legitimate banking companies as they communicate with clients about suspicious account activity. Barracuda […]

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Equifax or Equiphish?

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More than a week after it said most people would be eligible to enroll in a free year of its TrustedID identity theft monitoring service, big three consumer credit bureau Equifax has begun sending out email notifications to people who were able to take the company up on its offer. But in yet another security stumble, the company appears to be training recipients to fall for phishing scams. Continue reading Equifax or Equiphish?→

Equifax or Equiphish?

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More than a week after it said most people would be eligible to enroll in a free year of its TrustedID identity theft monitoring service, big three consumer credit bureau Equifax has begun sending out email notifications to people who were able to take the company up on its offer. But in yet another security stumble, the company appears to be training recipients to fall for phishing scams. Continue reading Equifax or Equiphish?→

In wake of Equifax breach, government shines light on entire industry

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Government agencies have contacted Equifax’s largest competitors to learn more about the potential for cyberattacks on the credit monitory industry as a whole, a senior federal official told CyberScoop. The recently revealed breach at Equifax — one of three multinational corporations that rely on comparable software to manage consumers’ credit reports and other highly sensitive records — caused upwards of 143 million records to be compromised and drew immediate attention by federal law enforcement. But other federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, have been focusing on understanding the threat posed to the larger industry, according to the senior federal official, who spoke to CyberScoop on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing government investigation. The official said that because Equifax’s biggest competitors — namely TransUnion and Experian — also rely on the software like Apache Struts, a popular web server application, the outreach was necessary in order to learn more about the industry’s […]

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Equifax breached, up to 143 million SSNs and DOBs stolen, all Americans offered credit monitoring

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Massive multinational credit reporting company Equifax has been breached by hackers, with up to 143 million U.S. residents having their names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers stolen from the company’s databases. In an unprecedented move, the company is offering free credit monitoring not just to the 143 million consumers, but potentially every American. In a statement, Chairman and CEO Richard Smith explained that the company discovered the breach on July 29, by which time it had been ongoing for more than two months. The hackers “exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access,” the statement says. “Regardless of whether your information may have been impacted, we will provide you the option to enroll in TrustedID Premier,” says a special website the company set up to inform the public about the breach. TrustedID Premier is a service the company offers which includes monitoring of […]

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