In what was originally reported as 8,000 Canadians who had been affected by the massive Equifax data breach back in September is now understood to be far more and far worse.
The 8,000 Canadians affected in the original hack had their personal information compromised in the data breach, but the company couldn’t state how many additional credit cards were impacted across the country. But in an a statement issued Tuesday, Equifax noted that 11,670 of the affected credit cards are Canadian bringing the total number of northerners impacted by the hack to 19,000.
The company says an investigation has revealed that the credit card records contain names, addresses, credit or debit card numbers, expiry dates and Social Insurance Numbers. Hackers also accessed or stole the personal data of 145.5 million U.S. consumers and nearly 400,000 Britons in the breach, which was discovered on July 29.
The company says it is notifying all affected consumers by mail, and is offering free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to affected Canadians. The company previously said that it believes that hackers accessed Equifax Canada’s systems through a consumer website application intended for use by U.S. consumers.
But a website for the company’s Canadian division now says Canadian systems were not affected and are “entirely separated from those impacted by the Equifax Inc. cyber security incident reported in the U.S.”
Read our initial reporting on the Equifax breach here.
