Hackers had access to data on 143 million people at US credit rating agency

The data of possibly 143 million Americans was stolen in a hack of the American credit rating agency Equifax. The company itself announced this. In addition to credit card numbers, the data obtained also includes vehicle registration information.

The criminals entered through an undisclosed exploit of an application on a US company’s website, which gave them access to the database. They had access from mid-May until July, when the company discovered the hack, the company says.

The data that was in the database is by no means all the data that the company has in its hands. Equifax manages data of around 600 million people worldwide, while this concerns data of up to 143 million people. This mainly concerns residents of the United States. The hackers have seen credit card details of more than 200,000 people, and another 189,000 are other documents.

Equifax has reported the hack and is informing customers via emails. It has also opened a website where customers can check whether their data is in the hacked database.