It said hackers exploited a “website application vulnerability” and obtained personal data about British and Canadian consumers as well as Americans. Equifax also lost control of an unspecified number of driver’s licenses, along with the credit card numbers for 209,000 consumers and credit dispute documents for 182,000 others. (Sarah Parnass,Dani Player,Brian Fung/The Washington Post)The information exposed in the Equifax breach is categorized as “personally identifiable information” or PII, and is regarded as particularly sensitive, experts say. Here is what you need to know about spear phishing: a targeted attack hackers use to steal your personal information. (Sarah Parnass,Dani Player/The Washington Post)One of the other leading credit rating agencies, Experian, was hacked in 2015, causing the personal data of 15 million Americans to be exposed.

Source: Washington Post September 07, 2017 21:46 UTC