Equifax announces 2.4 million more Americans affected in breach

The big thing: This new revelation shows how Americans can still be left in the dark about whether their personal information is secure after a data breach — even months after an incident occurs — potentially leaving them vulnerable to identity theft and its related headaches for years to come.

The investigations:

• The FTC began investigating the breach in September, as did lawmakers and law enforcement.
• All 50 state attorneys general have launched investigations into the breach, according to a November filing with the SEC.
• Trump’s new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief, Mick Mulvaney, has reportedly taken a step back from its probe into Equifax’s data breach, per Reuters.

The details for those newly affected:

• Equifax found the additional 2.4 million exposures by cross-referencing names and partial driver’s license numbers with internal and external data sources.
• The newly announced 2.4 million will receive the same credit monitoring and identity theft protection Equifax offered those who were alerted in the initial announcement.