Equifax Data Breach Impacts 143M Americans
Lee Mathews reports in a Forbes article that Equifax discovered a breach on July 29th that could impact nearly half of the US population. The article goes on to say that personally identifiable information (“PII”) such as social security numbers, birthdates, names, addresses, and credit card numbers comprise approximately 209,000 of the breached records. Whereas additional information, such as credit card charge disputes and related information involved another 182,000 records, according to the article.
The article indicates that Equifax has created a dedicated website to assist users and is staffing a call center from 7AM – 1AM (Eastern) to answer any questions related to this breach. Furthermore, according to Matthews, Equifax is offering free credit monitoring for all the affected persons [Ed. note: users may want to opt for third-party monitoring unless they feel that monitoring (but not data security) is something Equifax is capable of handling in a competent fashion].
To be sure, this is likely to generate significant attention for the next several weeks as the forensic analysis and the full scope, and manner of the breach is revealed.
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