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Celeb Data Breach Traced To Credit Reporting Site
Tiger Woods and Mitt Romney are latest to see personal financial details published; credit agencies confirm hackers took data from AnnualCreditReport.com
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, the country's three biggest credit-reporting agencies, have confirmed that hackers fraudulently obtained copies of credit reports for celebrities and government officials.
"We are aware of recent media reports pertaining to unauthorized access to files belonging to high-profile individuals," read a statement released Tuesday by Equifax. "Equifax can confirm that fraudulent and unauthorized access to four consumer credit reports has occurred."
The information had allegedly been obtained via AnnualCreditReport.com, which was created in 2003 after Congress passed legislation requiring that each of the three credit bureaus offer -- to the approximately 200 million consumers whose information they track -- a free annual copy of their credit report. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the service is used annually used by 16 million consumers.
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