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Credit Reporting Firm Equifax Announces 'Cybersecurity Incident Impacting Approximately 143 Million US Consumers' (cnbc.com)

Equifax, which supplies credit information and other information services, said Thursday that a cybersecurity incident discovered on July 29 could have potentially affected 143 million consumers in the U.S. "The leaked data includes names, birth dates, social security numbers, addresses and potentially drivers licenses," reports CNBC. "209,000 U.S. credit card numbers were also obtained, in addition to 'certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers."

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Richard F. Smith said in a statement: "This is clearly a disappointing event for our company, and one that strikes at the heart of who we are and what we do. I apologize to consumers and our business customers for the concern and frustration this causes. We pride ourselves on being a leader in managing and protecting data, and we are conducting a thorough review of our overall security operations. We also are focused on consumer protection and have developed a comprehensive portfolio of services to support all U.S. consumers, regardless of whether they were impacted by this incident." Equifax is now alerting customers whose information was included in the breach via mail, and is working with state and federal authorities.

UPDATE (9/7/17): According to Bloomberg, "three Equifax senior executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million" in the days after the company discovered the security breach. Regulatory filings show that three days after the breach was discovered on July 29th, Chief Financial Officer John Gamble sold shares worth $946,374 and Joseph Loughran, president of U.S. information solutions, exercised options to dispose of stock worth $584,099." Meanwhile, "Rodolfo Ploder, president of workforce solutions, sold $250,458 of stock on Aug. 2."

3 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Free Credit Reporting? by Lothsahn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do I get free credit reporting for this? Is it from Equifax?

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    -=Lothsahn=-
    1. Re:Free Credit Reporting? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, Equifax is going to treat the breach as a "hard pull" on everyone's account and ding your score for it.

    2. Re:Free Credit Reporting? by amicusNYCL · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't worry, you'll figure it out when someone uses your personal data that they stole from Equifax to open accounts in your name, which causes your credit rating to go down, which will show up on your credit report. From Equifax.

      Anyone want to place wagers on whether or not Equifax will drop your score because people stole your identity with the data they got from Equifax?

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      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black