Equifax Admits to Almost 700,000 Consumer Data Breach

Equifax Inc. corrected its statement and has now admitted to having 693,665 UK customers, as opposed to their previous statement with only 400,000 people, had their data stolen between May and July this year.

The credit reporting agency also said that 15.2 million records of their British clients were affected by the cyber data breach it disclosed last month.

Equifax previously announced that only 400,000 of their customers’ sensitive information were affected.

The company said that 14.5 million of their records, dating from 2011 to 2016, which the hackers attained didn’t put their British consumers at risk.

All in all, 145.5 million people – who are mostly residing in the United States – along with 8,000 Canadians, had their sensitive information compromised, which includes Social Security numbers, addresses and birthdates.

According to a report, licence numbers of around 10.9 million Americans were also exposed by the hack.

They have currently identified four groups of affected UK customers: 637,000 people who had their phone numbers stolen; 29,000 who had their driver's licence numbers were stolen; 15,000 who had some Equifax membership details stolen; and 12,000 who had their email addresses stolen.

The firm denied in September that any addresses, passwords or financial information were included in the UK data that was stolen.

However, the company has now admitted to having 15,000 of their UK customer data, who had their Equifax membership details accessed, indeed included passwords, secret questions and answers, as well as partial credit card details.

Equifax’s president for Europe, Patricio Remon, stated, “Once again, I would like to extend my most sincere apologies to anyone who has been concerned about or impacted by this criminal act.” He added, “Let me take this opportunity to emphasize that protecting the data of our consumers and clients is always our top priority.”

Ever since the scandal, Equifax had seen its chief executive officer, chief information officer, and chief security officer leave the company.

Equifax Might Pay a Hefty Amount

According to an attorney that analyzed the Equifax lawsuits, “if done right”, the company might end up paying more than $1 Billion, most of which will go directly to the over 145 million consumers affected by the data theft. He also predicts the lawsuits to be settled in less than two years.

Unlike with previous cases with Target and Home Depot, the fallout this time will be different. An analyst said that one reason would be the “new reluctance among judges to sign off on class action settlements that include only free credit monitoring services.”

Also, data theft is now more willing treated by courts as a “harm in its own right,” rather than requiring actual evidence of credit breach.

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