Equifax says 8,000 Canadians affected

Equifax Inc. said Monday that it has revised down the number of Canadians affected by its high-profile data breach and now puts the number at about 8,000 cus- tomers.

The company previously estimated that some 100,000 Canadians could have had their personal information compromised before a forensic review by cybersecurity firm Mandiant found the actual number to be much lower.

Equifax said Monday that an additional 2.5 million Americans may have been affected by the massive security breach of its systems, bringing the total to 145.5 million people who had their personal information accessed or stolen.

Equifax said the company it hired to investigate the breach, Mandiant, has concluded its investigation and plans to release the results “promptly.”

The company also said it would update its own notification for people who want to check if they were among those affected by Oct. 8.

The information stolen earlier this year included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses — information that could put people at significant risk for identity theft.

Equifax says the review also determined that some Canadians had their credit card information hacked and it will be mailing out written notices to all potentially impacted Canadians, but did not provide a specific estimate.

On a website update, Equifax’s Canadian division said it has not yet mailed out any notices and made clear it would not be making any unsolicited calls or emails about the issue.

Equifax first notified the public of the security breach on Sept. 7, though it said the unauthorized access is thought to have happened from May 13 to July 30, with Equifax’s security team catching the hack on July 29.

The company has said that it believes that hackers accessed Equifax Canada’s systems through a consumer website application intended for use by U.S. consumers.

Equifax is facing investigations in Canada and the U.S., as well as at least two proposed class- actions filed in Canada.

Equifax’s former CEO, Richard Smith, who announced his retirement last month, will testify in front of Congress starting Tuesday. He’s expected to face bipartisan anger from politicians who have expressed outrage that a company tasked with securing vast amounts of personal data was unable to keep their security software up to date.