Crooks Grab W-2s from Credit Bureau Equifax
Summary: Identity thieves accessed W-2 tax and salary data for Kroger employees through Equifax's W-2Express portal by entering default PIN codes made up of the last four digits of the employee's Social Security number and four-digit birth year. Kroger, which employs more than 431,000 people, sent a letter dated May 5 to current and some former employees, and Stanford University and Northwestern University also reported similar access through the same Equifax portal affecting 600 and 150 people respectively.
What's compelling: The only authentication standing between a fraudster and a full W-2 was the last four of an SSN plus a birth year - data Equifax itself said was likely obtained from prior breaches - and Kroger still did not know how many of its 431,000 employees were affected.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
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