Archive for Equifax

Still Unsure If You Were Affected In The Equifax Breach? Plus, Ways To Protect Your Data

The recent Equifax breach affects over 143 million American taxpayers.

As you might imagine, this could wreak havoc for those affected and you may not even know you’ve been affected until you go to file your taxes next year.

The data breach gave hackers access to the Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers and credit card numbers of people around the world, and as mentioned above 143 million American taxpayers. Criminals can use all of that date to steal identities, so there are sure to be consequences in the short term and long term. One of those long-term ramifications could be that a criminal will use your personal information to file a bogus tax return in 2018.

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Will Equifax Executives Face SEC Charges For Selling Their Shares Before the Public Disclosure of 145 Million Hacked Consumer Files Led to Share Price Collapse?

William Byrnes, Tax Advisor

From mid-May 2017 through July 2017 Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies, allowed the personal and financial records of 145.5 million American consumers to be collected by nefarious criminal actors.  On March 8, 2017, reports the New York Post, Equifax had been warned by the Department of Homeland Security about the software flaw that could lead to the breach, but Equifax did not patch the flaw.

Equifax, as reported by the Federal Trade Commission, allowed access to people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. They also stole credit card numbers for about 209,000 people and dispute documents with personal identifying information for about 182,000 people. UK and Canada personal information was also hacked.

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Written by | Posted in Equifax • Securities and Exchange Commission