Health Information Compliance Alert

A cyber attack exposes millions of consumers credit data.

On September 7, 2017, Equifax was compromised with a breach that impacted over 143 million individuals. The cyber attack resulted from “website vulnerability,” the company said in a release on its website.

Read about the Equifax cybersecurity incident at: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com.

“The information accessed primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers,” Equifax noted. “In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed.”

Equifax is the sole contractor of credit checks for Affordable Care Act (ACA) participants, according to a release from Bloomberg Politics online. “The credit data firm has a $329 million, five-year government contract which ends in March to verify the incomes of people purchasing coverage through the health exchanges,” the Bloomberg Politics post said.