Credit company Equifax (EFX) on Thursday announced about the possible leakage of electronic data, which may affect about 143 million people in the US.
FOX News reports that in a statement, the company reported that its databases were hacked in the period from mid — may until July 2017 . Criminals could use the «vulnerability of applications to the web site of the United States» to access the files containing social security numbers, date of birth, address and driver’s license numbers. The hackers also gained access to numbers of credit cards 209 000 customers from the United States and other documents with personal information an estimated 182,000 U.S. citizens.
At Equifax, said that the leak had learned on July 29, 2017, however, released information only on 7 September 2017.
«Our company is very upset this incident. We apologize to our customers and business partners,» said Chairman and chief Executive officer Equifax Richard F. Smith.
He also added that the company conducts a thorough analysis of operations to ensure security.
«We are also focused on protecting the interests of consumers and so have developed a comprehensive package of services to support our customers from the United States, regardless of whether affected their data breach or not.»
At Equifax, said that hackers gained unauthorized access to confidential information, some customers from UK and Canada.
The cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright from «Risk & Reward» believes that the number of stolen data can be more:»they Have names, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses … I don’t think that 143 million is the final figure».
The company has created a web site for users, which will help them to know that affected their personal information.
However, experts and users soon, has criticized the app for verification. To find out, stole your data, you are prompted to enter your last name and last six digits of social security numbers.
«It’s very unusual — most of the security systems for verification requests only four digits,» says Satya Gupta, co-founder and chief technology officer Virsec Systems, cybersecurity firms. «By and large this means that the usual four digits can be hacked, and they need additional, previously «secret» information to identify customers. It just confuses the situation with the leak — providing more information, thus you can confirm your identity?».
Several people who tested the web site Equifax, said that after check Equifax does not show whether there was stolen their data. Instead, they got the registration date for the monitoring program of crediting.
According to Equifax, they will also send notice by mail to those customers, credit card numbers and documents which were stolen.
