You would think that in this day and age where our technology is becoming more sophisticated and advanced that our security would be as well. However if anything, it seems that these days we are hearing more and more companies experiencing security breaches that have unfortunately exposed user data in the process.
In a recent announcement by Equifax (via Engadget), the company has confirmed that they have experienced a security breach in which 143 million US customer data has since been exposed, with the possibility that customers in the UK and Canada might have been affected as well. This includes information like customer names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers, as well as credit card numbers and dispute documents.
According to the company, this security breach was discovered on the 29th of July, with the belief that the intrusion itself could have taken place between mid-May to July. When the breach was discovered, Equifax claims to have taken immediate action to stop it and hired a cybersecurity firm to learn more about it and exactly how much data might have been stolen/exposed in the process.
If you want to know if your information might have been part of the breach, Equifax has since setup a dedicated website where you can check. The company is also offering customers free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection in the form of TrustedID Premier.