On September 7, 2017, Equifax, one of three nationwide consumer credit reporting agencies, finally deigned to inform the public about its major data breach scandal.
Since Equifax is a trusted company that tracks the financial history of millions of consumers, it was extremely alarming when the company became the victim in one of the worst data breaches in history.
Even more shocking was the fact that they neglected to inform the general public until months later – the actual breach occurred between mid-May and July, and Equifax discovered the hack on July 29. By that time, millions of consumers’ private information had already been compromised.
Unfortunately, much of what happened is still unknown to both company and customers. The company is still investigating the hackers that were behind the breach, and how they managed to break into their data supply. Equifax suspects that the hackers exploited a weak point in their website application software.
However, the company admitted that the leak was partly their fault, because they had failed to promptly install a security fix for the weak point. Equifax confessed that they had known about the flaw in their software for a full two months before the hackers breached it. This is a terrible mistake on their part, especially since Equifax is a very tempting target for hackers.
As one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, it is a great spot for identity thieves to get a hold of a large amount of data at once.
The Equifax data breach is considered to be one of the worst ever data breaches simply due to the sheer amount of affected people, as well as the extremely sensitive information that has been exposed.
CNN News stated that the hackers now have access to a variety of personal information, such as “names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, credit card numbers, and the numbers of some driver’s licenses.” According to Equifax, the hack impacted the information of nearly 143 million people in the United States. This includes the credit card numbers of 209,000 Americans, and the “personal identifying information” of 182,000 Americans. The U.K. and Canada had also been affected, but the company has not released the exact number.
Some other recent major cyber attacks include the attack on Yahoo in 2013 that compromised the private information of one billion Yahoo accounts, and the attack in 2015 that endangered 500 million Yahoo accounts. The infamous Ashley Madison data breach in July 2015 threatened to expose the data of the 32 million people that used the controversial website to engage in extramarital affairs.
This case was especially strange and chaotic, because it allowed spouses to confirm if their partners were secretly cheating on them. All three cases were just as bad, if not worse, than the Equifax data breach.
However, unlike the other data breaches, the Equifax breach is unique because not all of the people that are affected by the Equifax hack are aware that they are customers of the company. Companies like Equifax receive all of their data – everything from a consumer’s loans, loan payments, credit cards, child support payments, credit limits, missed rent and utilities payments, addresses and employer history, to their credit scores – from credit card companies, banks, retailers, and lenders. Most of the time, customers are not aware that their information is being reported and stored in a credit reporting agency.
According to CNN, Equifax will be mailing notices to people whose credit cards or dispute documents were affected. The company is also suggesting customers to sign up for a credit file monitoring and identity theft protection.
Regardless of whether they have been affected by the recent data breach, Equifax is providing free service for one year through its “Trusted ID Premier” business. Worried consumers can also check if they were affected by the hack by going to Equifax’s website. If they simply submit their last name and the last six digits of their social security number, they will shortly receive a message that will confirm or deny their worries. There are hopes that this event will never happen again.