Data Breach at Major Credit Bureau Captures 143 Million Americans

Equifax, one of the big three credit bureaus relied upon by million of consumers each year to tabulate credit scores, announced a massive breach on September 7th resulting in the exposing of sensitive information for more than 143 million Americans. The breach itself occurred back in July, and the company assured consumers that it had “acted immediately” to contain the issue.

The credit bureau has already set up a website to keep consumers up to date on the matter and provide free credit monitoring, but its gesture has come under fire for the use of a sneaky mandatory arbitration clause. Punitive action from federal regulators is likely after it was discovered by the SEC that three top executive at Equifax sold nearly $2 million in stock in the company shortly after the breach but before it became public. Members of Congress are even calling for a Senate inquiry into the circumstances around the hack.

The announcement of the breach comes at a time when consumers are increasingly factoring data security into decisions, following similar exposures at Chipotle and Home Depot.