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Equifax Data Breach Could Impact Half of U.S. Population
Credit monitoring company Equifax revealed a massive data breach that exposed the Social Security numbers and other key information of roughly 143 million Americans. The Atlanta-based company, one of three major credit bureaus in the U.S., reported the problem Thursday.
“Criminals” exploited a U.S. website application to gain access to files between mid-May 2017 and July 2017. That allowed unauthorized access to consumers’ names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers, though not apparently Equifax’s core credit-reporting databases.
The largest breach on record belongs to Yahoo, which was targeted in at least two separate digital heists affecting more than one billion globally. However, it underscores how unreliable personal identifiers such as Social Security numbers are becoming when verifying a person’s identity.
Equifax set up a website (link below) and phone number (866-447-7559) for consumers to check if personal information may have been stolen.
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