Equifax: 15 Million California Residents Impacted in Data Breach

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BREAKING NEWS:

Equifax has submitted a report putting the number of California residents “potentially impacted” by the hacking of their company data in 2017 at approximately 15,178,887.

Prepared by King & Spalding LLP, a law firm in Georgia representing Equifax Inc., the report refers to the breach as a “Data Security Incident Affecting Equifax Inc.”

It is a cybersecurity * incident * potentially impacting information relating to approximately 143 million U.S. consumers, 15,178,887 of which are in the state of California.

Dates of Breach:
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Sunday, July 30, 2017

The form letter Equifax will sending out to California residents includes this:

“Equifax is also offering to all U.S. Consumers complimentary credit file monitoring and identity theft protection for one year, even if a consumer is not impacted by this incident.The offering, called TrustedID Premier, includes 3-Bureau credit monitoring of Equifax, Experian and TransUnioncredit reprots; copies of Equifax credit reports; the ability to lock and unlock Equifax credit reports; identity theft insurance; and Internet scanning for Social Security numbers. Information on how to enroll for this offering is included on the dedicated website. Additionally, Equifax has established a dedicated call center, 866-447-7559, available from 7:00 am to 1:00 am Eastern time, seven days a week, to answer questions about the incident, assist consumers in signing for the complimentary service, and provide information about about how to further protect personal information.”

Meanwhile, the Equifax marketing department appears to be using this massive data breach as a lead-generating opportunity. You see lemons, they see lemonade.