LONDON: Shares in British credit-checking company Experian plunged Friday after admitting that 15 million US customers had their personal data hacked.
Shares sank 4.19 percent to 1,030 pence in late morning deals on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which rose 0.95 percent to 6,130.14 points.
The 15 million affected customers are clients of T-Mobile USA -- the American unit of the German mobile phone giant.
Hacked data included names, dates of birth, addresses, social security numbers and other forms of identification like drivers' license numbers, as well as additional information. No payment card or banking information was acquired.
An Experian spokesman stressed that it was an "isolated incident", adding that the group's consumer credit data base was not accessed.
"Experian North America announced that one of its business units, notably not its consumer credit bureau, experienced an unauthorized acquisition of information from a server that contained data on behalf of one of its clients, T-Mobile USA," it said in a statement overnight.
"The data included some personally identifiable information for approximately 15 million consumers in the US."
Affected customers had submitted credit applications for T-Mobile USA from September 1, 2013, to September 16, 2015.
"Upon discovery of the incident, Experian took immediate action, including securing the server, initiating a comprehensive investigation, and notifying US and international law enforcement," the group added.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.