An estimated 143 million U.S. consumers could be affected by a cybersecurity attack carried out against Equifax, one of the nation's three largest credit-reporting companies.
Equifax will send paper mail to consumers whose credit card numbers or dispute documents with personally identifying information were impacted. It has also created a dedicated website for consumers to see if they were affected at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. They can also call the Equifax call center at 866-447-7559.
While there is no evidence of unauthorized activity in the Equifax credit reporting databases, the company said that there was potential unauthorized access to information it had stored from mid-May through July 2017. The information included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver's license numbers.
The hackers also got access to credit card numbers for roughly 209,000 consumers, plus certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 consumers, Equifax said.
