https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/13/heres-what-went-wrong-for-equifax-in-those-first-48-hours-commentary.html >Once you got over the initial horror of Equifax's colossal data breach last week, the most surprising thing about the news was how unsurprising it really was. >While massive by any measure — the 143 million affected U.S. consumers represents nearly half the U.S. population — the Equifax breach, which included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and (in some cases) driver's license and credit-card numbers, doesn't even rank among the three largest in recent years. Americans, unfortunately, are getting used to data breaches that involve populations equivalent to entire countries or even entire continents.