According to previous reports, about 143 million consumers were said to have been affected by the hack led by Russian hackers on Equifax. However, new reports on this Equifax hack show that the actual number is much higher and stands at 147.9 million affected consumers.
Equifax is a credit report agency that keeps information of 800 million consumers and more than 88 million businesses as well. This hack is considered one of the largest hacks in recent times and gets to show the need to have much secure systems in place.
Who Is Behind The Equifax Hack?
A Russian hacking group that goes by with the name of Snake is behind the attack and has stolen Tax Identification Numbers and driving license information of a large number of consumers who are a part of Equifax.
At first, Equifax did not reveal the damage inflicted in this hack, but now it is clear that the hackers have a significant amount of data in their hands that they can use to carry out illegal activities.
What Needs To Be Done?
The company needs to strengthen their security measures and the government should aid the company in securing personal information of people who do business with the company.
But, what about the victims? There is no information yet on how the organizations are going to handle this loss of data or how the victims are going to be secured in case the hackers use their information in the future.
The Bottomline
The lawmakers are looking into the matter and are keen on finding a lead that will help them get to the hackers.
Source:
https://mashable.com/2018/03/01/equifax-hack-more-americans/
https://www.thestar.com/business/economy/2018/03/01/equifax-finds-additional-24-million-in-us-impacted-by-2017-data-breach.html
