Between May and July 2017, American credit bureau Equifax was breached. Private records of 147.9 million Americans along with 15.2 million British citizens and about 19,000 Canadian citizens were compromised in the breach, making it one of the largest cybercrimes related to identity theft.
Equifax discovered the breach end of July, but did not disclose it to the public until September 2017. In a settlement with the United States Federal Trade Commission, Equifax offered affected users settlement funds and free credit monitoring. In February 2020, the United States government indicted members of China's People's Liberation Army for hacking into Equifax and plundering sensitive data as part of a massive heist that also included stealing trade secrets, though the Chinese Communist Party denied these claims.[1][2]