How many records were exposed in the 2017 Equifax data breach?

How many records were exposed in the 2017 Equifax data breach? Approximately 147 million records were exposed.

Equifax initially reported that the breach affected about 145.5 million Americans, but later investigations identified additional compromised records. The company’s updated estimate reached 147.9 million U.S. consumers, which is commonly rounded to 147 million in quiz questions and general reporting.

The attackers exploited a known vulnerability in Apache Struts, a software framework used by Equifax’s online dispute portal. The intrusion lasted from May through July 2017, and Equifax discovered it near the end of July. The company publicly disclosed the incident in September, prompting intense criticism over patching, detection and notification practices.

The stolen information included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s-license and credit-card data. The breach became one of the defining identity-theft incidents of the decade. A common mix-up is treating 145.5 million, the first estimate, as the final total; 147.9 million is the later figure.