Equifax Inc, one of three major providers of consumer credit scores, said on Thursday a hack exposed the personal details of potentially as many as 143 million U.S. consumers between mid-May and July.
The company said hackers accessed details including names and social security numbers. In some cases, hackers accessed driver’s license numbers. Additionally, credit card numbers of around 209,000 U.S. consumers and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information of around 182,000 U.S. consumers were accessed as well.
Equifax said that personal information of certain UK and Canadian residents were also hacked. The company will be working with UK and Canadian regulators to determine the steps it needs to take to address the situation.
The breach was discovered on July 29. Equifax has hired a cybersecurity firm to investigate.
The company said there was no evidence of a breach to its core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases.
This breach could be one of the biggest in the United States. Last December, Yahoo announced that more than 1 billion users were compromised in August 2013. In 2014 the online auction site eBay urged 145 million users to change their passwords following a cyber attack.
Is it time to reinstate the death penalty for identity theft? Absolutely if 1/3 the country can potentially lose everything they own we must not so mercy on criminals
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