The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed that it will investigate a ‘cyber security’ break at data provider Equifax which hit nearly 700,000 UK consumers.

In a statement today, the FCA said: “The FCA announces today that it is investigating the circumstances surrounding a cybersecurity incident that led to the loss of UK customer data held by Equifax Ltd on the servers of its US parent. This statement is made given the public interest in these matters.”

Equifax is one of the UK’s biggest database providers and, apart from a large consumer database, also keeps a large database of UK financial intermediaries via its Equifax Touchstone subsidiary. It is not known if data on intermediaries was affected.

Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the Treasury Committee, recently asked the FCA about Equifax’s licence to operate in the UK and whether the FCA could impose fines or force the company to pay compensation for the breach.
Equifax has said that just over 15 million records of British citizens were affected by the cyber security breach including sensitive data on nearly 700,000 individuals offered credit protection services.

It is has been reported that the UK data hacked into included credit accounts, user credentials, partial credit card details and driver licence details.

The remaining 14.5 million records holding names and birth dates of UK consumers were "potentially compromised", the company said.

Equifax said last month it had been the victim of a major data breach in the US which may have affected 143 million people’s records, mostly in the United States.