Data breaches

Equifax's data breach may be the most serious, given that it covered 143 million consumers and involved reams of confidential information, but it wasn't the largest. Following are the biggest to date.

Data breaches and payment hacks require not only tech measures, but crisis management. Had Equifax gotten out in front of the story, particularly during the slow news period of August, it would have earned kudos and perhaps mitigated some of the public scrutiny, writes David E. Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision.

Normally tight-lipped about security moves, bankers tell how they are re-examining their systems for Equifax-like flaws and providing new cards, fresh accounts and reassuring advice for anxious customers.

Readers react to Equifax's massive data breach, weigh in on the departure of SoFi's CEO, endorse a new digital identity system, and more.

More than 100 suits have been filed since the company revealed the massive data breach last week; price of digital currency is down 25% since hitting a record high a week ago.

The breach may result in a huge new dump of names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information that fraudsters can leverage to gain access to a legitimate user’s account, writes Jason Tan, CEO of Sift Science.

The best solution to the current broken identity system is to flip the authentication process from third parties to the users themselves.

Lenders aren’t happy with the way the credit bureau has responded to the data breach; JPM chief calls digital currency “a fraud.”

It's only the early days after the Equifax breach, but breadth of the data has the potential to reverberate for some time, requiring a mix of detection, prevention and response, according to John Gunn, chief marketing officer at VASCO Data Security; Atiq Raza, CEO of Versec; and Tim Erlin, vice president of product management and strategy at Tripwire.

TransUnion Chief Financial Officer Todd Cello said Tuesday the firm kept call centers open through the weekend to deal with the flood of calls from anxious consumers.

Banks should not point blame at the credit bureau but rather should step up and demonstrate their commitment to their customers. If you punt the problem to Equifax, it suggests you don’t really care.

Online lender’s co-founder says “negative press” from lawsuits has become a “distraction”; company sought lighter regulation and limited legal liability for credit bureaus.

Everybody say it with me, “Customer data is a liability.” And the Equifax breach shows why.

Leaders of the national credit union trade associations are once again calling for a congressional solution to a problem that has plagued consumers for years

In order to compensate victims of the breach, Equifax is offering free credit monitoring services that include a mandatory arbitration clause, a measure Democrats were highlighting to lobby support for the CFPB's rule banning such clauses.

One lawsuit has already been filed against Equifax in the wake of its massive security failure. But that’s the just beginning of the consequences for the credit bureau and the Fis that use it.

One lawsuit has already been filed against Equifax in the wake of its massive security failure. But that’s the just beginning of the consequences for the credit bureau and the banks that use it.

Intruders accessed names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers in what could be one of the largest data intrusions.

An encrypted website and secure network aren’t very helpful when customers have been unknowingly routed to a criminal’s lookalike site, writes Simon Thorpe, director of product for Authy at Twilio.

UniCredit, Italy's No. 1 bank, said hackers took biographical and loan data from 400,000 client accounts in one of the biggest breaches of European banking security this year.