美国有线新闻 CNN 美征信巨头出现安全漏洞 1.43亿客户信息或遭泄露

 

Financially speaking, your credit is your trustworthiness to pay back a loan, might be for a house or a car, or something you buy in a credit card.

One major company that keeps track of people's credit is Equifax. You don't sign up for Equifax and you can't get rid of it. The agency just collects credit information on hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Here's the bad news, Equifax has been hacked¹ and that might have exposed a massive amount of personal information to people who should not have it.

This is so concerning that the U.S. government which doesn't usually comment on ongoing² investigations³ has confirmed that it's gotten involved to try to find out what went wrong.

JOSE PAGLIERY, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CURNOW: Equifax, one of the three big credit monitoring companies, those companies that track all of your finances and everything you do, just announced that hackers⁴ have broken into the company's databases and stolen information on 143 million Americans. For perspective, that's more than half of American adults, and the thing is, you might be affected⁵ even if you don't use Equifax, because Equifax tracks everybody.

So, what happened exactly? Hackers, we're not sure who, stole names, birthdays, addresses, Social Security numbers and importantly, driver's license⁶ numbers. This is extremely sensitive information that can be used to steal your identity.

According to the company, they also got access to 209,000 people's credit card numbers. This is the kind of thing that hackers can try to sell on the black market and fraudsters can then steal your tax refund⁷ at the end of the year, open up a bank account in your name, or in a pretty worse case scenario⁸, print out fake IDs, get in trouble and police will be looking for you, not the fraudster.

You might be affected by this, even if you've never heard of Equifax, because this company tracks everyone who's applied⁹ for a loan, a mortgage, or open up a bank account.

AZUZ: Lawsuits¹⁰ are expected over this. Equifax has been accused of not doing enough to protect people's information from potential hacks¹¹. The agency is offering free temporary credit monitoring to those who might have been affected. Experts say people should sign up for that to check their own credit reports and they consider freezing their credit, which can make it harder for someone else to use your name to open an account.

1 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

2 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

3 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

4 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

7 refund   

v.退还，偿还；n.归还，偿还额，退款

参考例句：

• They demand a refund on unsatisfactory goods.他们对不满意的货品要求退款。
• We'll refund your money if you aren't satisfied.你若不满意，我们愿意退款给你。

8 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

9 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

10 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

11 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网