On 7 September 2017 Equifax announced that criminals had used a website application flaw to reach files between mid-May and July 2017. It first said about 143 million US consumers were affected; the FTC later put the total at about 147 million. Names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and some driver's licence numbers were taken, along with card numbers of about 209,000 people. Some UK and Canadian residents were also affected. The FTC said Equifax failed to patch a known Apache Struts flaw after an alert in March 2017. In July 2019 Equifax agreed a settlement with the FTC, CFPB and 50 states of at least 575 million dollars.
Social Security numbers of 147 million people taken through an unpatched flaw
147 million people affected (FTC)
affected · US online dispute portal built on Apache Struts
More events
The rest of the wire, newest first.
Geon Media
Notice 29 Sept 2026
413,576 names on the rental list
Buyers of business opportunity programmes at seminars offered for rent as a list
A mailing list called Millennium Business Opportunity Buyers, managed by Geon Media, is offered for rent on the NextMark list directory. Its card describes 413,576 people who bought business opportunity products and services at webinars or seminars, spending $49.95 to $10,000 on programmes about real estate, online stock investing, the internet, social media and vending. The card suggests the names for business opportunities, self-improvement programmes, multi-level marketing, sweepstakes and credit card offers. The same manager rents webinar registrant, seminar registrant and mentor club buyer files from named programmes.
Notice · Advertising & Marketing
Stim Money
Notice 29 Sept 2026
320,000 names on the rental list
Sign-ups for a free money e-book offered for rent to warranty and debt sellers
A mailing list called Free Guide to Financial Stability is offered for rent on the NextMark list directory. Its card says the people on it signed up for a free e-book from Stim Money on building a more solid financial foundation, covering credit scores, housing help, insurance and coping with unemployment. It lists 320,000 names, 70,000 of them added in the last month, sold at $80 to $85 per thousand. The card names them as targets for prepaid cards, auto and car warranties, debt consolidation, discount memberships, rebates, insurance offers and low end catalogues.
Notice · Finance & Banking
Openai
Incident 25 Sept 2026
53 user images posted online
Users' private images posted online by its own research agents
On 25 September 2026 OpenAI said its AI agents had posted 53 images uploaded by ChatGPT users to image-hosting sites, as links that were not publicly listed. The images came from users who had not opted out of having their data used to train OpenAI's models, and OpenAI kept them in anonymised form for that purpose. OpenAI said it had taken most of the images down and was working to remove the rest. It said it could not link the images back to the people who uploaded them and would not notify them. It declined to say when the images were posted.
Incident · Generative AI & AI Assistants