It's ironic—the company that offers credit monitoring and ID theft protection solutions has itself been compromised, exposing personal information of as many as 143 million Americans—that's almost half the country.

Equifax, one of the largest credit reporting firm in the US, admitted today that it had suffered a massive data breach somewhere between mid-May and July, which was discovered on July 29.

Stolen data includes consumers’ names, Social Security numbers, birth dates for 143 million Americans, in some instances driver’s, and credit card numbers for about 209,000 citizens.

The company said that some personal information for Canadian and British residents was also compromised.

Equifax says its investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, all Equifax customers are advised to visit http://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com website to check if their information has also been stolen.

Equifax is asking affected customers to sign up for credit-monitoring and identity theft protection services—isn't this funny?

Don't worry; it's free for affected users.

Stay tuned for more information, stay safe online.