{"id":13044,"date":"2017-09-19T17:46:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T01:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/equifax-confirms-another-security-incident\/"},"modified":"2017-09-19T17:46:06","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T01:46:06","slug":"equifax-confirms-another-security-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/equifax-confirms-another-security-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Equifax Confirms Another 'Security Incident'"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Merrit Kennedy<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Equifax was hit with a cyberattack before the one revealed earlier this month, and the hackers seem to have had many months of access to consumers’ information.<\/p>\n

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Mike Stewart\/AP<\/p>\n

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Mike Stewart\/AP<\/p>\n

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After the revelation that a cybersecurity breach at the international credit reporting agency Equifax exposed personal information of 143 million people, the company has confirmed an additional security incident with a payroll-related service in the months prior. It says the two are unrelated.<\/p>\n

Equifax is already struggling to regain public trust after it waited at least a month to disclose to consumers that the cyberattack potentially impacted their personal information, such as names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers and credit card information.<\/p>\n

“Earlier this year, during the 2016 tax season, Equifax experienced a security incident involving a payroll-related service,” an Equifax spokesperson told NPR. “The incident was reported to customers, affected individuals and regulators. This incident was also covered in the media.”<\/p>\n

The company spokesperson disputes a Bloomberg report released Monday<\/a>, where an unnamed source “said the breaches involved the same intruders.” The company adds that the same security company, Mandiant, “has investigated both events and found no evidence that these two separate events or the attackers were related.”<\/p>\n