Over the past few years, data breaches and ransomware attacks have become common occurrences, with many companies falling victim to these cyberattacks. Now, TMX Finance, a public financial service company, has joined the list of organizations affected by these attacks, announcing a data breach that has exposed sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) of almost 5 million customers.
The breach, which occurred in December 2022, impacted all three of TMX Finance’s subsidiaries, namely TitleMax, TitleBucks, and InstaLoan, and affected customers across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and China. However, the company only discovered the breach when the threat actors accessed the data between February 3 and February 14, 2023.
Although TMX has not disclosed how the hackers accessed its network, they were able to access a significant amount of customer data, including full names, birth dates, passport numbers, driver’s license numbers, federal/state identification card numbers, tax identification numbers, social security numbers, financial account information, phone numbers, postal addresses, and email addresses. This level of data is enough to cause identity theft, putting affected customers at risk.
Impact on customers and steps to take
In an effort to mitigate the impact of the breach, TMX Finance is offering identity theft protection and credit monitoring services from Experian free of charge for 12 months. Additionally, they have notified the FBI about the incident, although the hackers behind the data breach have yet to claim responsibility. Meanwhile, the company has advised affected customers to review their credit reports and account statements and report any fraudulent activity to the relevant law enforcement authorities, such as their state attorney general or the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
“We continue to monitor our systems for any suspicious activity and have implemented additional security features, such as additional endpoint protection and monitoring, as well as resetting all employee passwords. We continue to evaluate ways to further enhance the security of our systems,” says TMX Finance.
2023-04-04 15:07:25