Equifax Hack: Massive Data Breach Exposed

What could be more ironic than that of a credit reporting and ID theft protection solutions itself facing a security breach?

Yes, we are talking about ‘Equifax’, one of the largest credit monitoring firms. Equifax admitted on Thursday that it has suffered a massive cybersecurity data breach that could have impacted about 143 million U.S. consumers. In a statement, the company claimed that the unauthorized entry occurred mid-May through July 2017. The attacker have exploited U.S website vulnerability to access the files ranging from social security number, date of births, addresses and driver’s license number.

Equifax also claimed that the Hackers accessed the credit card numbers of about 209,000 consumers in the U.S. and other documents with personal details of about 182,000 people in the U.S. It is still unknown why Equifax made its consumers wait for 6 weeks before informing about the security breach.

According to Equifax, the investigation is still going on. "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", said Richard F. Smith, Chairman and CEO of Equifax. “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.”

Moreover, according to Bloomberg, three Equifax senior executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million just a few days after the company discovered the data breach.