Confidentiality of Consumer Credit Files Breached Again

Equifax Canada Inc (Equifax), a credit reporting company, has announced that it has suffered a security breach, the second in about a year, a breach that has given criminals access to personal information of several hundred Canadians. The improper use of an Equifax customer's access codes and passwords apparently allowed hackers to gain access to 605 consumer files containing personal information including names, addresses and social insurance numbers. Credit card and bank account numbers were not included in the files. Equifax has known of the breach for several months but it was reported only last week. A similar breach occurred in March, 2004 when the detailed personal credit files of about 1400 people were accessed. The company reports that all people affected by the current breach, most of whom are BC residents, have been contacted by mail, and that the system has been secured. Affected accounts have been tagged with a "lost or stolen identification" notice and affected customers will be given a year's subscription to a credit monitoring service. The RCMP is investigating. For news stories on the information leak, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?P59614D4B http://makeashorterlink.com/?N3A622D4B Summary by: Clare McCurley