Equifax Hackers Also Seized Data From 15.2 Million Britons

The American credit rating agency Equifax has announced that the major hack that came to light a month ago did not only steal data from about 146 million Americans. It now appears that data has also been obtained from 15.2 million British customers.

That major hack that took place in May 2017 initially appeared to be primarily about American personal data, but the credit rating agency has revealed that a file containing data from a total of 15.2 million British customers was also part of the hack. Equifax says 14.5 million British customers are involved in a possible leak where only the name and date of birth were taken.

The remaining 700,000 customers, who will inform Equifax by post of the stolen data, mainly concern stolen telephone numbers: a total of 637,000. In addition, 29,000 UK driver’s license numbers and 12,000 email addresses have been stolen, and there have been 15,000 cases of Equifax membership data stolen, such as usernames and passwords. Equifax had previously said that the data of less than 400,000 Britons had been stolen in the hack.

During the hack, unauthorized persons gained access to the data of mainly 146 million Americans. The credit card details of several hundred thousand could be viewed. The criminals entered through a leak in Apache Struts that had been known for months. As a result of the hack, the director decided to resign from his position at the end of September. Earlier, the chief security officer and the chief information officer already left.