More Americans than previously thought have been affected by Equifax’s massive data breach last year. The company says an additional 2.4 million people were impacted but adds these newly disclosed consumers had significantly less personal information stolen.
The additional consumers only had their names and a partial driver’s license number stolen by the attackers, unlike the original 145.5 million Americans who had their Social Security numbers impacted, the company says. Attackers were unable to get the state where the license was issued, the date of issuance or its expiration date.
In total, roughly 147.9 million Americans have been impacted by Equifax’s data breach. It remains the largest data breach of personal information in history.
The company says they were able to find the additional 2.4 million Americans by cross referencing names with partial driver’s license numbers using both internal and external data sources. Equifax says it will reach out to all newly impacted consumers and will provide the same credit monitoring and identity theft protection services they have been offering to the original victims.
