Despite Equifax Breach, People Don’t Check Their Credit Scores

Despite a massive data breach at credit scoring company Equifax last year, a new survey reveals adults in the U.S. haven’t been checking their credit scores.

According to news from CNBC, CreditCards.com found that 18 percent of the 1,164 adults polled have never checked their credit score or credit report in their adult lives. What’s more, three out of 10 survey respondents said they heard about the data breach at Equifax but that the news didn’t prompt them to check their own credit scores. Among the survey respondents, millennials were the most likely to have not heard about the Equifax data breach, at 26 percent. Still, 34 percent of millennials checked their credit score and report during the past six months, which is a higher rate than any other generation.

“If the announcement of something that significant won’t get people to act, then it raises the question of what will,” said Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com. “I think people just feel that they have more pressing things to do.”

In September, Equifax announced it had experienced a cybersecurity incident that may have impacted approximately 143 million consumers in the U.S., as well as the credit card numbers of approximately 209,000 people. In a press release detailing the cybercrime, the company said hackers potentially exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files.

Based on the company’s investigation, the unauthorized access occurred from mid-May through July 2017, with no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s consumer or commercial credit reporting databases, the company said in the release. According to Equifax, the information impacted includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers.

The company also reported 209,000 U.S. consumer accounts were accessed by hackers, as well as certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers. As part of its investigation, Equifax identified unauthorized access to limited personal information for certain U.K. and Canadian residents.