Equifax breached, up to 143 million SSNs and DOBs stolen, all Americans offered credit monitoring
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. Although the breach affects just over 60 percent of the adult population of the U.S., it is far from being the largest ever. Two Yahoo breaches revealed last year impacted almost 1.5 billion accounts. But experts said it might nonetheless be the worst, because the consumers affected would all immediately be at high risk of identity theft for the foreseeable future. Unlike when credit card or password information is stolen, consumers cannot change their Social Security number or date of birth. The largest breach of SSNs prior to Thursday was the 2015 Anthem hack of 80 million records. In an unprecedented move, Atlanta-based Equifax said it was offering a year’s free credit monitoring — […]
The post Equifax breached, up to 143 million SSNs and DOBs stolen, all Americans offered credit monitoring appeared first on Cyberscoop.