400,000 Brits affected by Equifax data breach

Equifax has admitted that 400,000 UK residents may have been affected by a major data breach from July.

The consumer credit reporting agency revealed last week that hackers had accessed details, such as social security numbers and dates of birth, of up to 143 million American consumers.

A statement on Equifax’s website reads: “Regrettably, the investigation shows that a file containing UK consumer information may potentially have been accessed.

“This was due to a process failure, corrected in 2016, which led to a limited amount of UK data being stored in the US between 2011 and 2016.”

Information accessed includes names, dates of birth, email addresses and telephone numbers, but not any residential addresses, passwords or financial data.

The statement adds that it may need to contact “fewer than 400,000 UK consumers” to offer them appropriate advice and a range of safeguarding and reassurance services.

Some cyber security experts have drawn attention to the point that the breach concerns people in the UK, not just customers of Equifax.

While few Brits will have called on Equifax’s services, it is feared that personal details will be used to make phishing scams more credible.

Patricio Remon, president at Equifax Ltd commented: “We apologise for this failure to protect UK consumer data.

“Our immediate focus is to support those affected by this incident and to ensure we make all of the necessary improvements and investments to strengthen our security and processes going forward.”