One of the largest security breaches ever has come to light today as Equifax revealed attackers used an exploit on its website to access records for 143 million US citizens (for reference, the US has a population for 323 million or so, that’s about 44 percent). The oldest of the three major US credit bureaus, it maintains information on over 800 million people for credit and insurance reports, which is also a juicy target for anyone trying to steal data. Equifax says the breach lasted from mid-May through July 29th when it was detected. – Engadget
There are several disturbing issues regard the Equifax breach:
- Size. 143 million US customers were effected. This is a massive breach.
- Delay. Early reports indicate that the breach went undetected for almost 3-months.
- Possible SEC violations. Senior Equifax executives sold off millions of Equifax stocks between the time the breach was “discovered,” but before the company publicly revealed the massive cyber breach had occurred.
- The fox in the hen house. As with past breaches, Equifax is required to offer their customers credit monitoring services at no cost. The duration of the credit monitoring is usually anywhere between 3 to 12 months.
Equifax is offering the customers TrustedID. Do you know who owns TrustedID………..Equifax.
