Anyone who has been following the story about the Equifax breach already knows it was a massive data breach that compromised sensitive information belonging to millions upon millions of Americans. Unfortunately, the number of people affected just keeps growing. In an announcement yesterday Bill Schuette, Michigan’s attorney general, revealed that “another 80,000 Michigan residents have been added to the more than 4 million people affected in the state by the enormous Equifax data breach.”
Anyone who has been following the story about the Equifax breach already knows it was a massive data breach that compromised sensitive information belonging to millions upon millions of Americans. Unfortunately, the number of people affected just keeps growing. In an announcement yesterday Bill Schuette, Michigan’s attorney general, revealed that “another 80,000 Michigan residents have been added to the more than 4 million people affected in the state by the enormous Equifax data breach.”
According to Schuette’s office, the huge breach has “now impacted the personal information of more than 4.6 million consumers in Michigan.” Unfortunately, that alarming number is in addition to an “additional 2.5 million people” that recent findings believe “may have been affected by the breach.” So what’s the grand total of people affected? Well, as it stands right now, 145.5 million people across the country were impacted in some way by the hack.
Understandably this massive breach has many individuals and organizations in an uproar, so much so that quite a few lawsuits have already been filed against the company. To be fair, however, Equifax isn’t just sitting around doing nothing. Rather, back in August it “hired cybersecurity firm Mandiant to investigate” the breach.
Additionally, the company is offering services like credit locking to customers. Credit locking would “prevent criminals from opening a fraudulent account — like a credit card or a mortgage — in your name, even if they’ve gotten a hold of your personal information.” According to the Attorney General’s office, the company also “promised to update their website by Oct. 8, 2017, so that consumers can check if they are in the newly discovered group.” That means if you checked whether or not you were impacted by the breach last week or even a few weeks ago, it’s important to check again just to make sure you aren’t part of the 80,000 Michiganders who just found out their information was indeed compromised.
Regarding the breach and the new numbers out of Michigan, Schuette issued the following statement:
“The fall out from this breach continues to grow and my consumer protection team is diligently working to make sure Michigan residents know what to monitor as they move forward. It is important for individuals to determine if they are affected and I encourage anyone who believes their personal information has been compromised to file a complaint with my office.”
Wondering if your information was compromised? Visit Equifax’s Cybersecurity Incident & Important Consumer Information website to double check.
Sources:
Equifax data breach: Another 80,000 affected in Michigan, AG says
Equifax will offer free credit locks. Here’s what that means for you
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