Equifax Finds Additional 2.4 Mln Affected By 2017 Data Hack

(RTTNews) - Credit reporting giant Equifax Inc.(EFX) Thursday said that more U.S. consumers were affected by its massive data hack last year than it originally reported.

Equifax said it was able to identify about 2.4 million U.S. consumers whose names and partial driver's license information were stolen, but were not in the previously identified list.

This information was partial because, in the vast majority of cases, it did not include consumers' home addresses, or their respective driver's license states, dates of issuance, or expiration dates.

"This is not about newly discovered stolen data," said Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., Interim Chief Executive Officer. "It's about sifting through the previously identified stolen data, analyzing other information in our databases that was not taken by the attackers, and making connections that enabled us to identify additional individuals."

The company said it will notify the new victims directly. It will offer identity theft protection and credit file monitoring services at no cost.

In September, Equifax had revealed that in a hacking incident the personal information of about 145.5 million U.S. consumers were potentially compromised.

Equifax revealed that the hackers exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files, which included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, mailing addresses, and driver's license numbers.

Credit card numbers for about 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information of 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed. Equifax says that the data breach, one of the largest in history, occurred from mid-May through July 2017.