Equifax data breach is also being investigated by UK officials
It could lose the ability to conduct credit checks in the country.
While 143 million US residents were affected by the Equifax breach, they weren't the only ones impacted. Nearly 700,000 UK residents also had their information stolen -- including phone numbers, driver's license numbers, email addresses, user names, passwords and partial credit card details -- and UK authorities are now investigating the company.
Both the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Information Commissioner's Office are conducting investigations into Equifax, Bloomberg reports, and in the case of the former, it can decide to fine Equifax as well as take away its authorization to run credit checks in the UK. "Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have been affected by the Equifax data breach," Nicky Morgan, chair of the House of Commons Treasury Committee, told Bloomberg. "The FCA is right to investigate the circumstances surrounding it."
In the US, the Equifax breach is currently being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, the House Oversight Committee and New York's Department of Financial Services while some Senators have also taken an interest. Additionally, a handful of Equifax big shots who dumped loads of stock just before the company announced the breach are being investigated by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possibly participating in insider trading.
A spokesperson for the UK's Information Commissioner's Office told Bloomberg, "It is a complex and fast-moving case and we are working closely with other UK regulators and our counterparts in Canada and the US."
