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Hackers breached Equifax, accessing sensitive data for 143 million U.S. consumers

Social Security numbers and other information has been compromised, the company says.

A crowd of people in a stadium Paul Kane / Getty

The credit reporting service Equifax revealed Thursday that it had fallen victim to a massive data breach earlier this year, affecting as many as 143 million U.S. consumers.

Hackers appear to have obtained Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses, and for some, even their license plate numbers, the company said in a statement. Roughly 209,000 consumers also had their credit card information improperly accessed, while Equifax said those behind the attack also managed to steal “certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers.”

Equifax said the breach occurred between mid May and July 2017, stressing it “has found no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases.”


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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