OK, I had to use the word 'Hacked'. Sorry. How else can you say it?
The full headline is:
Giant Equifax data breach: 143 million people could be affected.

Which is an understatement. How can they downplay 143 million records?
Either it happened or it did not. How can one be unsure about 143 million things? We are not talking about bacteria or some such thing that is too small to notice.
Here is a bit from CNN:
Quote

Equifax says a giant cybersecurity breach compromised the personal information of as many as 143 million Americans — almost half the country.

Cyber criminals have accessed sensitive information -- including names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and the numbers of some driver's licenses.

According to reports by Equifax itself, the credit-reporting firm’s secure customer information has been breached.
Equifax reported that over 143 million of its U.S. customers may have been affected by the breach, wherein unauthorized users had access to the company’s data from mid-May through July of this year.
Private identifying information such as birth dates, addresses, names, driver’s-license numbers, and Social Security numbers were obtained by the unauthorized users. Equifax also reported that “credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed.”