Equifax Reveals Major Data Breach

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —Equifax says that three company executives who sold stock just days after the company discovered a major security breach were not aware of the hack at the time.

On Thursday, the company disclosed a cyberattack that ran from mid-May to July. The attack exposed the Social Security numbers and other sensitive information of about 143 million Americans. Equifax said it detected the hack on July 29.

On Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, Equifax Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and two other executives, Rodolfo Ploder and Joseph Loughran, sold a combined $1.8 million in stock.

In a statement, the company said the executives “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares.”

The Atlanta-based company said Thursday that “criminals” exploited a U.S. website application to access files between mid-May and July of this year.

It said consumers’ names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers were exposed. Credit card numbers for about 209,000 U.S. consumers were also accessed.

The company said hackers also accessed some “limited personal information” from British and Canadian residents.

Equifax said it doesn’t believe that any consumers from other countries were affected.