10.9 million US driver’s licenses were stolen in the massive breach that Equifax suffered in mid-May, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. In addition, WSJ has revealed that the attackers got a hold of 15.2 million UK customers’ records, though only 693,665 among them had enough info in the system for the breach to be a real threat to their privacy. Affected customers provided most of the driver’s licenses on file to verify their identities when they disputed their credit-report information through an Equifax web page. That page was one of the entry points the attackers used to gain entry into the credit reporting agency’s system.
While leaked SSNs and bank details are definitely worse, driver’s licenses contain some info that could make it easier to steal someone’s identity, including people’s height and eye color. A bad player could use the name, address and physical characteristics in those stolen licenses as a verfication for someone else’s identity or to carry out scams in someone else’s name. If you verified your identity using your license through Equifax’s website in the past and want to ensure your security, it’s probably best to get a new license number.
In case you’re in the UK and are more worried about the stolen UK consumer info, though, Equifax said it will contact the 693,665 affected individuals. The rest of the records only contain people’s names and birthdates, which aren’t considered sensitive information.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
