FCA to launch investigation into Equifax data breach

The FCA has announced today that it is investigating the circumstances surrounding a cybersecurity incident that led to the loss of UK customer data held by Equifax on the servers of its US parent. The FCA has released a short statement announcing the investigation but did not provide further details.

Earlier this month, Equifax admitted that more UK customers had been hit by a cybersecurity incident between mid-May and the end of July this year. It is thought that 649,000 British people were affected.

Four groups of UK customers have so far been detailed:

• 637,000 whose phone numbers were stolen
• 29,000 whose driving licence numbers were stolen
• 15,000 who had some of their Equifax membership details, such as usernames and passwords, stolen
• 12,000 whose email addresses were stolen

In September, Equifax announced that it had been the victim of one of the largest data breaches in US history, with more than 143 million records compromised.