[Equifax asks consumers for personal info, even after massive data breach]

Equifax is one of the largest U.S.-based credit reporting agencies that collect and analyze detailed records of financial data for a wide range of consumers worldwide. The credit reporting agency Equifax said Thursday that hackers gained access to sensitive personal data — Social Security numbers, birth dates and home addresses — for up to 143 million Americans, a major cybersecurity breach at a firm that serves as one of the three major clearinghouses for Americans' credit histories. “In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed.”

The company said that information of some UK and Canadian residents was also accessed during the breach, which it discovered on 29 July. Bloomberg News reported Thursday evening that three company executives — Chief Financial Officer John W. Gamble; Joseph M. Loughran III, the president of U.S. information solutions; and Rodolfo O. Ploder, the president of workforce solutions — sold large amounts of their shares of Equifax stock totaling nearly $1.8 million in the days after the breach was discovered July 29. I apologize to consumers and our business customers for the concern and frustration this causes," Richard F. Smith, the company's chief executive, said in a statement published on its website.
More than 143 million people in the U.S. may have had their social security and driver's license numbers compromised due to a data breach on the credit rating firm Equifax.