Equifax is a global information solutions company that provides credit scoring services to thousands of companies around the world. Equifax recently announced that they were the victims of a large cyber-security attack which compromised the personal information (including SINs, credit card numbers, and personal information) of a large number of individuals.

It is estimated that approximately 100,000 Canadians may have had their personal information compromised by the incident, along with 143 million US consumers and a number of UK consumers.

Some of our insurance markets use Equifax to access clients’ credit scores (with consent). To access the credit scores, Insurers will compare names, birthdates, and addresses of consenting individuals to the information that Equifax has. Insurance companies do not access any additional information from Equifax’s database (banking information, social insurance number, etc.), as it is not necessary for these transactions.

Insurance companies will continue to use Equifax, as there is no expected impact to their clients as a result of the consented credit checks that have been taking place. The information that was accessed by cybercriminals is information that Equifax had on file already, and is not related to any insurance transactions.

We will continue to keep our clients up to date as more information becomes available.

A statement from Equifax can be found at https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com.