Equifax in its fresh public statement has admitted that personal details of more than 700,000 UK customers’ were leaked in the cyber attack which took place in 2Q of this year. And the details include credit card details (partial info), phone numbers, driving licenses, and other details.
The credit monitoring company which is based in Atlanta, Georgia discovered the hack in July this year. But it made the info public only on September 7th, 2017 i.e. after a span of two full months (almost). It mentioned in its cyber attack disclosure that personal details of only 143 million Americans and a few Canada and UK customers were accessed by the cyber crooks.
But when the company launched a 3rd party investigation, it found that details of 693,665 British Customers were leaked in the hack. Also, a file containing 15.2 million UK customer records, dated between 2011 and 2016 was also said to be missing from the database.
Patricio Remon, the UK Chief of Equifax has issued an apology over this issue and said that his company will take appropriate steps to isolate its customers from all such attacks in near future.
Moreover, the company is offering a free credit monitoring service for a span of two years to all those who were impacted by the attack. So, all those who receive a letter from Equifax should take advantage of the help offered to guard against any potential risks.
Note- Equifax is a credit reporting company which collects financial info about customers and stores it in its database. Lenders rely on the info offered by such credit bureaus to decide whether to approve financing for homes, cars, and credit cards.
