143 million Americans' private records stolen from Equifax
Hackers have stolen masses of sensitive data from Credit reporting agency Equifax. The company revealed that data on 143 million US citizens - nearly half of the country's population - was illicitly accessed; the firm's stock plummeted following the news. The data included social security numbers, birthdays, addresses and credit card numbers. UK and Canadian citizens have also been affected by the breach.

Credit reporting agency Equifax announced today (Sept. 7) that hackers stole records containing personal information on 143 million of its customers in the United States.

“On July 29, 2017, Equifax discovered that criminals exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files,” the company said in a statement. “Most of the consumer information accessed includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and in some instances, driver’s license numbers. In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 consumers.”

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The company added that 182,000 credit-dispute documents, which contain personal information, were also stolen.

Shortly after the announcement, Bloomberg News reported that three executives at Equifax sold nearly $1.8 million worth of company shares after the data breach had been discovered in late July. The company’s stock dropped more than 12% in after-hours trading following the announcement at about 4:30pm ET.

Equifax has created a website to help its customers find out whether their data has been stolen.