Equifax reports that 143 million U.S. consumers’ names, birthdays, addresses and Social Security and driver’s license numbers were exposed by hackers due to a massive breach, among the largest ever recorded.
Equifax, whose function is to “collect vast amounts of financial information from consumers without their knowledge, working with banks and other lenders, for example, to track the creditworthiness of individuals” presents a real dilemma since “companies that have suffered data breaches typically offer free credit monitoring services from firms like Equifax, which has now itself suffered a huge cyber attack.”
Because of the breach, Equifax growth will be hindered over the next three to four quarters and its reputation as a custodian of consumer data will be reduced according to Moody’s Investors Service.
