It’s a story that has been on everyone’s mind: What exactly is the Equifax data breach? How am I impacted? What can I do now?
Since The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first started reporting on the enormous breach of 143 million Americans’ personal information, we’ve received a lot of feedback from you.
We know you’re worried about your privacy, your money and your identity.
So that’s why Channel 2 Action News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB Radio and Consumer Adviser Clark Howard are teaming up to be here for you.
On Monday at 10 a.m., Clark Howard will be live in his Consumer Action Center to answer your questions about the massive data breach.
Channel 2 Action News anchor Craig Lucie will host the event, and there will be special guest appearances from several experts on the topic.
You can listen to the event LIVE on the radio on News 95-5 and AM 750 WSB, or watch it on the AJC.com Facebook page or AJC.com.
Equifax has been under intense public pressure since it disclosed last week that hackers accessed or stole the millions of Social Security numbers, birthdates and other information.
On Friday, it gave its most detailed timeline of the breach yet, saying it noticed suspicious network traffic on July 29 associated with its U.S. online dispute portal web application.
Equifax said it thinks the access occurred from May 13 through July 30.
Equifax had said earlier that it identified a weakness in an open-source software package called Apache Struts as the technological crack that allowed hackers to heist the data from the massive database maintained primarily for lenders.
That disclosure, made late Wednesday, cast the company’s damaging security lapse in an even harsher light.
The software problem was detected in March and a recommended software patch was released shortly afterward.
Equifax said its security officials were “aware of this vulnerability at that time, and took efforts to identify and to patch any vulnerable systems in the company’s IT infrastructure.”
The company has hired Mandiant, a business often brought in to deal with major security problems at big companies, to do a forensic review.
Equifax also said Friday it would continue to allow people to place credit freezes on their reports without a fee through November 21. Originally, the company offered fee-free credit freezes for 30 days after the incident.
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