Equifax says that only 8000 Canadians may have been affected by cybersecurity breach, not 100,000

October 2nd, 2017  |  Canadian Business

In the Equifax cybersecurity breach that affected 143 million customers, 100,000 of those were believed to be Canadians. However, new reports have said that the number of Canadian’s impacted is actually 8000.

"The completed review subsequently determined that personal information of approximately 8,000 Canadian consumers was impacted," Equifax said. "In addition, it also was determined that some of the consumers with affected credit cards announced in the company's initial statement are Canadian."

Equifax hired cybersecurity firm Mandiant to handle the investigation into the breach. Since conducting their investigation they discovered that the number of Canadians affected was actually lower than originally thought, and the number of American’s affect was higher, bringing the total to 145.5 million.

These new numbers come soon after Richard Smith was replace by Paulino do Rego Barros Jr. as (interim) CEO. Barros has since expressed his apologies to everyone affected by the security breach, and hopes to improve Equilfax security.

"I want to apologize again to all impacted consumers," Barros said in a release. "As this important phase of our work is now completed, we continue to take numerous steps to review and enhance our cybersecurity practices. We also continue to work closely with our internal team and outside advisers to implement and accelerate long-term security improvements.”