Credit monitoring company Equifax says a breach exposed the social security numbers and other data of about 143 million Americans. It said consumers’ names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers were exposed. But no social security numbers or drivers’ licenses were taken in the Yahoo break-in. Equifax’s security lapse could be the largest involving the theft of social security numbers, one of the most common methods used to confirm a person’s identity in the US. It eclipses a 2015 hack at the health insurer Anthem Inc that involved the social security numbers of about 80 million people .

Source: The Guardian September 07, 2017 21:42 UTC