Equifax says almost 400,000 Britons hit in data breach

[dutchman]

Data about British people "may potentially have been accessed" during the data breach at the US credit rating firm Equifax



The UK arm of the organisation said files containing information on "fewer than 400,000" UK consumers was accessed in the breach.

Last week, Equifax revealed details of the hack and said data on more than 143 million Americans was taken.

The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating how the data was stolen.

Information released when details of the breach were disclosed suggest that hackers got at Equifax's internal systems between mid-May and the end of July this year when the company discovered it had been penetrated.

Data on social security numbers, birth dates and addresses, was taken during the incident.

Equifax is now facing dozens of legal claims over the incident.

In a statement, the UK office of Equifax said an internal investigation had shown that data on UK consumers was accessed during the hack.

It said data on Britons was being held in the US due to a "process failure" which meant that a limited amount of information was stored in North America between 2011 and 2016.

The information held included names, dates of birth, email addresses and telephone numbers. No addresses, passwords or financial data was involved.

Equifax said that because the data on UK citizens was limited it was "unlikely" that those affected would suffer identity theft.

It said it would contact those affected and offer them free ID protection services that would alert them to any attempt to carry out fraud with their details.

"We apologise for this failure to protect UK consumer data," said Patricio Remon, president at Equifax's UK office, in the statement.

"Our immediate focus is to support those affected by this incident and to ensure we make all of the necessary improvements and investments to strengthen our security and processes going forward," he added.

It said it was co-operating with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Information Commissioner's Office on their investigations.

Equifax has set up a website - equifaxsecurity2017.com - to keep people up-to-date with what is happening and to provide advice.

[rebbonk]

And to think the power this company has over people!

[Melisandre]

I have never believed in this credit check thing my self for this very reason nor chip and pin nor credit cards I think its about time we returned to the old system cash as I ve heard a lot of people are doing now because of details being given out freely or stolen.

[rebbonk]

I try to deal in cash as often as possible, but there are plenty of limitations: more and more times I'm asked for credit/debit card or bank details. - Or God forbid, to take interest free credit! If what I want is readily available I'll walk away and try somewhere else.

And as regards giving direct debits.... Hell will freeze over first.

[Melisandre]

I still live the old way Rebbonk any one who asks for my private details I dont bother with even my name I have been known by all my life is nt my name the internet can be paid for at the post office it just costs a little more even my electric water and tv is paid at a pay point my gas I pay quarterly at the post office or bank as lile my council tax by my bill no private details are given like with direct debit a little inconvienence for one day each month. They have made people lazy and causes to put them into debt if they dont keep track whats going out of their bank account especially if DD is taken out on a wrong day. Some shops and banks have been taking out double the amount people spend on their cards like recently and the bank will not re emburse the over draft caused through it.

Nor with supermarket point cards why should the government want to know what I am buying when they never wanted to know years ago and we got by as even those supermarket point cards go to audit with your name address of what you ve bought. I have nothing to hide I just think its all intrusive.

[dutchman]

None of the information stored by Equifax is actually 'secret', anyone can access it for a small fee. Whether that should be allowed or not is a matter of opinion. Their 'crime' in this case was storing the information on a server outside the UK which is definitely not permitted.

As far as I know their main business in the UK is checking whether there are outstanding payments on a car before it is sold.

[rebbonk]

Equifax is a full credit rating agency.

Whilst I don't use them (I use another) the level of detail that they have is incredible. For example, they know the balance on your credit cards, and they're pretty well up to date. Last time I checked, I had used a credit card a few days earlier and they knew that I'd spent the money. Even more worryingly, they must have had full details of my credit cards as to sign up they wanted to know my credit limits.

This nasty little breach is far more worrying than it is being painted.

[Melisandre]

Yes its very worrying Rebbonk hence why I ve never had credit cards I knew years back what was happening with my own family having trouble of their identity and information taken one was asked from a government leagal letter can they prove who they were the named person in this letter as their credit was being used frauduently buying windows and other large items in Worcestershire and Coventry they threw the letter in the bin saying its up to them to prove who he is not him.

Years ago we were all paid cash in a wage packet weekly in our hand they altered this to monthly and your wage went into a bank not in your hand in the 80s if I recall right shortly after so did social money and the family allowance so the banks know all our business and details to and all banking is done on line and many times they have thrown all our details in the rubbish strewn across the streets in black. bags. .

[rebbonk]

[dutchman]

Equifax execs sold shares before mega-hack reveal

Senior Equifax executives sold their shares in the credit agency just before its stock price plunged when the world was told it had been thoroughly hacked.

The cyber-break-in was detected on July 29. Funnily enough, a couple of days later, four top managers – chief financial officer John Gamble; president of US information solutions Joseph Loughran; president of workforce solutions Rodolfo Ploder; and senior veep of investor relations Douglas Brandberg – flogged their company stock to the tune of about $1.8m.

On September 7, about a month later, Equifax publicly confessed it had been hacked. Its share price promptly did this:



The stock offloading did not go unnoticed. The biz drafted in a panel of three directors from other firms to review the share sales, and this week ruled there was no evidence of insider dealing.

"The special committee has determined that none of the four executives had knowledge of the incident when their trades were made, that pre-clearance for the four trades was appropriately obtained, that each of the four trades at issue comported with Company policy, and that none of the four executives engaged in insider trading," the investigating trio revealed today.

Of the aforementioned execs who sold their shares, three got the green light from Equifax's legal department to do so, despite the discovery of the hack. Finance boss Gamble sold 6,500 shares, worth about $950,000, on August 1, and nine days later was informed of the security blunder at an offsite management meeting, the committee reported.

Ploder sold 1,719 shares worth $250,000 on August 2, but wasn't told of the attack until August 22. Brandberg also sold 1,724 shares on August 2 but didn’t get news of the breach until August 14.

The odd one out is Joseph Loughran, III, who as president of US information solutions would – you'd think – be one of the first to know about the network infiltration. He asked for clearance to sell 4,000 shares worth about $585,000 on July 28, a day before the hack was uncovered, and executed the trade on August 1, but it took until August 13 for him to be warned of the thefts.

On August 15, Equifax's legal department stepped in and ordered all staff with knowledge of the database theft to stop trading in company stock, then priced at about $142 per share. After the news of the hack broke, the price fell to $93 before recovering a little to $109 by today.

The special committee was headed by Elane Stock, the former president of toilet paper conglomerate Kimberly-Clark, and aided by Robert Daleo, a former CFO at Thomson Reuters, and Thomas Hough, treasurer of Metro Atlanta Chamber Of Commerce, Equifax's home town in Georgia, USA.