4.4 Million Customers Had Their Data Exposed in a Breach Affecting a Major Credit Reporting Agency. Are You One of Them? The stolen personal data includes names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers, but no credit information was leaked.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Dan Bova
Key Takeaways
- TransUnion is a major credit bureau, with credit history information for more than 260 million Americans.
- The company experienced a data breach impacting more than 4.4 million customers on July 28.
- It is notifying affected customers through written notices in the mail.
TransUnion, a major credit bureau in the U.S. that produces credit scores and reports, recently experienced a data breach impacting more than 4.4 million customers.
TransUnion reported the breach, which occurred on July 28, in a filing with Maine's attorney general's office on Thursday. The filing showed that customer data stored in "a third-party application" was compromised on that date. TransUnion discovered the breach two days later and reassured customers that the hackers did not access any credit information, including credit reports.
"Upon discovery, we quickly contained the issue, which did not involve our core credit database or include credit reports," a TransUnion spokesperson told Bloomberg in an email.
TransUnion informed the 16,828 Maine residents who were impacted by the data breach through a written notice [PDF] earlier this week. It will give free credit monitoring services for up to two years to those affected.
In another filing, this time with Texas's attorney general's office, TransUnion disclosed that 377,357 Texas residents were affected by the breach, and that it had provided notice to those residents through U.S. Mail. The filing revealed that personal information like names, social security numbers, and dates of birth had been compromised through the incident.
The company did not answer detailed questions about the breach, including who the hackers were and if they demanded anything, in correspondence with Bloomberg.
TransUnion is one of the major credit reporting companies in the country, with a database of credit histories for more than 260 million Americans.
Related: AT&T Customers Are Eligible for Up to $5,000 in a New Settlement. Here's What to Know.
The breach is the latest to focus on companies with a large amount of consumer data. IT giant Cisco underwent a major data breach in late July, when a caller tricked a call center employee over the phone and stole data, including addresses and phone numbers, of Cisco customers.
Insurance company Allianz Life also experienced a breach last month, revealing the personal information of many of its 1.4 million customers. The incident led to a class-action lawsuit.
