Equifax Stock Drops 13% After Massive Data Breach

Equifax Stock Drops 13% After Massive Data Breach

Credit monitoring company Equifax (NYSE: EFX) announced a massive data breach on Thursday evening that exposed the personal information of 143 million U.S. consumers. Among the information stolen were consumers' names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and some driver's license numbers.

For some consumers, the news is even worse. The data breach also included about 209,000 U.S. consumers' credit card numbers, as well as credit dispute documents containing personal information from about 182,000 U.S. consumers. For these consumers, not only are they at risk of criminals opening fraudulent accounts under their names, but their existing credit accounts could potentially be used for illicit transactions.

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Source: Fool.com