social security number | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Equifax has suffered one of the largest data breaches in history that has left highly sensitive data of as many as 143 million people —that's nearly half of the US population—in the hands of hackers. Based on the company's investigation, some unknown hackers managed to exploit a security flaw on the Equifax website and gained unauthorized access to certain files between mid-May and July 2017. The information accessed primarily include full names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses and, in some cases, driver's license numbers—most of the information that's banks, insurance companies, and other businesses use to confirm a consumer identity. The company added that 209,000 credit card numbers were also obtained by the attackers, along with "certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers." Equifax is one of the three major organizations in the United States that calculates credit scor

It's ironic—the company that offers credit monitoring and ID theft protection solutions has itself been compromised, exposing personal information of as many as 143 million Americans—that's almost half the country. Equifax, one of the three largest credit reporting firm in the United States, admitted today that it had suffered a massive data breach somewhere between mid-May and July this year, which it actually discovered on July 29—that means the data of 143 million people were exposed for over 3 months. However, it's unknown why Equifax waited 6 weeks before informing their millions of affected customers about the massive security breach. Based on Equifax's investigation, unknown hackers exploited a security vulnerability on its website to gain unauthorized access to certain files. Stolen data includes consumers' names, Social Security numbers, and birth dates for 143 million Americans, and in some instances, driving licence numbers and credit card n

Even as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, the number one attack vector for unauthorized access remains phished credentials ( Verizon DBIR, 2024 ). Solving this problem resolves over 80% of your corporate risk, and a solution is possible.  However, most tools available on the market today cannot offer a complete defense against this attack vector because they were architected to deliver probabilistic defenses. Learn more about the characteristics of Beyond Identity that allow us to deliver deterministic defenses.  The Challenge: Phishing and Credential Theft Phishing attacks trick users into revealing their credentials via deceptive sites or messages sent via SMS, email, and/or voice calls. Traditional defenses, such as end-user training or basic multi-factor authentication (MFA), lower the risk at best but cannot eliminate it. Users may still fall prey to scams, and stolen credentials can be exploited. Legacy MFA is a particularly urgent problem, given that attackers

BREAKING: A misconfigured database has resulted in the exposure of around 191 Million voter records including voters' full names, their home addresses, unique voter IDs, date of births and phone numbers. The database was discovered on December 20th by Chris Vickery , a white hat hacker, who was able to access over 191 Million Americans' personal identifying information (PII) that are just sitting in the public to be found by anyone looking for it. Vickery is the same security researcher who uncovered personal details of 13 Million MacKeeper users two weeks ago, which included names, email addresses, usernames, password hashes, IP addresses, phone numbers, and system information. However, the recent discovery made him shocked when he saw his own information in the database, according to DataBreaches.net, whom the researcher contacted and provided all the details about his finding. 300GB Trove of Voters' Information Leaked Vickery has his hands on all

If your Social Security number gets hacked in any data breaches, including recently hacked T-Mobile , then there's a way to prevent hackers from misusing your identity (i.e. identity theft ). The solution here is that you can institute a security freeze at each of the three credit bureaus, Equifax , Experian , or TransUnion . Once frozen, nobody will be allowed to access your credit report, which will prevent any identity thieves from opening new accounts in your name. Because most creditors required to see your credit report before approving a new account. But, if they are restricted to see your file, they may not extend the credit or open a new account in your name. However, there are some disadvantages of doing so. 1.   Cost The cost of a security freeze differs by state (check yours here ). However, it is often free for already affected people, but the issue is – if you want to let anyone check your credit, you will need to pay a fee every time to

If you applied for financing from T-Mobile anytime between 1 September 2013 and 16 September 2015, you have been HACKED! – even if you never had T-Mobile service. T-Mobile's credit application processor Experian was hacked, potentially exposing the highly personal information of more than 15 million people in the United States. The stolen information includes names, addresses, phone numbers and – most unfortunately – Social Security numbers . The massive data breach was first discovered in mid-September and has now been confirmed by T-Mobile CEO John Legere . According to Legere, Hackers successfully obtained Millions of people's private information through Experian, one of the world's largest credit check companies that process T-Mobile's credit applications. Both customers and people who submitted to a T-Mobile credit check ( but either canceled or never activated their T-Mobile service ) between September 1, 2013, and September 16, 2015, are most at ris