'Untrustworthy' Equifax finds a further 2.4 million victims of massive data breach

Credit score provider Equifax has admitted that a further 2.4 million US consumers were affected by a massive data breach which took place between May and July 2017.

This latest admission takes the total number of Equifax users affected to 147.9 million. The company said the latest batch of victims had had their names and driver's license information stolen by hackers.

However, Equifax claimed home addresses were not taken, and nor were the license issue and expiration dates.

The latest revelation comes after Equifax admitted in September 2017 that the personal details of up to 143 million US consumers were stolen by hackers between mid-May and July earlier that year. The company discovered signs of unauthorized access to data such as names, addresses and social security numbers.

Equifax acknowledged that the further 2.4 million victims were discovered as analysis of stolen data continues. In particular, the latest victims were identified by cross referencing names with partial driver's license numbers.

"This is not about newly discovered stolen data," said Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., interim chief executive efficer at Equifax. "It's about sifting through the previously identified stolen data, analyzing other information in our databases that was not taken by the attackers, and making connections that enabled us to identify additional individuals."

Speaking on the news, US Senator Elizabeth Warren said: "Equifax can't be trusted". Posting on her Facebook page, the Democratic Senator for Massachusetts said: "I spent five months investigating the Equifax breach, and found the company failed to disclose the full extent of the hack. Today, Equifax acknowledged that 2.4 million more people were affected than initially reported. Equifax cannot be trusted. Their mistakes allowed the breach to happen, their response has been a failure, and they still can't level with the public."

The credit rating company said in a statement: "Equifax will notify these newly identified US consumers directly, and will offer identity-theft protection and credit-file monitoring services at no cost to them."

Worldwide, Equifax holds data on more than 820 million consumers and 91 million businesses.

To find out if you are affected by the data breach, Equifax has created this website.