Equifax Confirms It Sent Out Letters To Hack Victims With Wrong Information

Equifax, the credit reporting company still suffering the aftermath of a massive data breach last fall, has confirmed it sent out notification letters to victims that are erroneous.

CNBC, citing Equifax, said a “small percentage” of letters went out with incorrect personal information. Over the weekend, one person received a letter from Equifax which had the correct address but incorrect name.

“As a result of ongoing analysis of data stolen in last year’s cybersecurity incident, we announced on March 1 that we had confirmed the identities of U.S. consumers whose partial driver’s license information had been taken and that we would notify these newly identified U.S. consumers directly,” Equifax said in a statement to CNBC. “We recently initiated this notification process by mail and have learned that a very small percentage of the notifications were sent to the wrong addresses due to the complex nature of determining the best address match to a consumer and, in some cases, mailing addresses on record may be out of date or incorrect.”

Equifax wouldn’t say how many wrong letters it sent out but stressed the letters didn’t contain any credit data or information that was sensitive. It noted that new letters will be sent out to impacted customers.

This confirmation comes just days after Equifax announced its board of directors concluded its previously announced CEO search process, naming Mark Begor as its new chief executive officer. In a press release, Equifax said Begor will start on April 16 and is coming to Equifax from Warburg Pincus, where he was a managing director and focused on operational improvement across the portfolio of companies that fall in Warburg Pincus’ Industrial and Business Services unit. Begor has been with Warburg Pincus since 2016, following on the heels of a 35-year career with General Electric.

“After conducting a comprehensive search process, the board is extremely pleased to welcome Mark to the Equifax team. He is a highly accomplished executive with a long track record of successful leadership across a variety of global industries relevant to our business, including his nine-year leadership of General Electric’s retail credit card business, now Synchrony Financial, as well as his membership on FICO’s board of directors,” said Mark Feidler, chairman of Equifax’s board. “His proven leadership ability, operational expertise, growth focus, financial acumen, strategic vision and customer orientation make him the right person to lead Equifax into the future.”