EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Sensitive information of thousands of Marine reservists and others has been exposed due to an unencrypted email going to the wrong distribution list. Not to be outdone, in the potential identity theft news department, Equifax has announced that even more Americans have been affected by last year’s data breach.

According to the website Military.com, the email was sent by an organization that service members and some civilians use for government travel. “The data breach included social security numbers, bank routing numbers and the credit card information of at least 21,426 Marines, sailors and civilians,” reports Military.com.

Such sensitive information is considered high-value data, especially by cybercriminals involved in lucrative e-commerce transactions on the dark web. With that kind of information, identities are stolen and fraudsters can use their personally identifiable information to open accounts and cause other trouble–financial and criminal.

The Marines were quick to spot the issue and take action, according to a Marine Forces Reserve spokesperson. “However, once the information got outside the Marine domain, there was no telling how widely it may have circulated on the internet,” notes Military.com.

Meanwhile, Equifax reported that an additional 2.4 million Americans have been impacted by its previous data breach. With this finding, the credit agency said the stolen information was more limited, including names and partial driver’s license numbers. The Mercury News reports, “In total, roughly 147.9 million Americans have been impacted by Equifax’s data breach. It remains the largest data breach of personal information in history.”

Read more about the Marine reservist data breach at Military.com. And, read more about the latest Equifax disclosure at The Mercury News.