South Africa's consumer credit news agency Experian has revealed it faces a data breach since Wednesday.
The information agency admitted that it handed over the personal data of its clients to a swindler who pretended to be the client.
While Experian did not disclose the number of users affected, a report by the South African Banking Risk Center (SABRIC), a non-profit anti-fraud organization, claimed the breach affected 24 million South Africans and 793.749 local businesses.
Experian said it reported the incident to local authorities, who were able to locate the man behind the event. Since then, Experian has said it has taken a court decision, "which has resulted in the confiscation of the individual's material and the security and deletion of the data."
Experian said none of the data had been used fraudulently before it was deleted and that the scammer did not risk the infrastructure, the systems or its customer database.
"Our investigations show that a person in South Africa, who claims to represent a legitimate client, asked Experian for her services," the agency said in a statement.
"Our investigations also show that the suspect intended to use the data to create instructions. marketing for the provision of insurance and credit services. ”
According to Experian, only personal information was exposed through the incident and no financial or credit is involved information.
The agency described the shared data as “information provided in its normal course business or are available to the public. "
Nevertheless, the data was considered personal enough by regulators confidentiality South Africa to launch an investigation into the incident.
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