Credit reporting firm Equifax says data breach could potentially affect 143 million US consumers

That's scary, it ought to be considered stolen property and therefore returned to the rightful owners. I wonder who was the buyer in the case that set that precedent, and who was pulling the strings.
Hopefully some members of government will fall victim to some of this identity fraud because that's gonna be about the only way those self serving sobs will try to change anything that hurts "their lowly subjects", aka the rest of the population.

 

Equifax Acquired Identity Protection Firm Before Disclosing the Hacker Breach

"The credit reporting company that lost the personal financial information of 143 million Americans to hackers purchased an identification protection service called ID Watchdog on Aug. 10, two weeks after Equifax discovered the data breach but a month before disclosing it publicly...

Denver-based ID Watchdog, founded in 2005, provides services like credit monitoring and identity theft notification for $15 to $20 per month. Equifax said it acquired the firm last month for $63 million without revealing that its systems had been penetrated thus drastically enhancing the market for identity protection services..."

http://fortune.com/2017/09/25/equifax-breach-id-watchdog/

Slick but Sick

 

There's your problem. The greed machine. Corporate executives really don't have a lot of choice in the matter. Their primary function is to do whatever will generate more profits for the stockholders so moral or social concerns are therefore, irrelevant.

 

My credit files have been frozen since 2015. It affords a much greater peace of mind than a credit monitoring service. Just sayin

 

Equifax’s Massive Hack Has a Tiny Silver Lining

 

Equifax breach outrage spurs New York State crackdown bill

 

They ought to impose a fine equal to at least 10% of a company's profits if customer information they hold on computers is compromised.
The message ought to be, if you can't secure it, don't do it.

 

Equifax Chairman, CEO Richard Smith Retiring Effective Immediately

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...-richard-smith-retiring-effective-immediately

What color is his parachute ?

"Smith's salary for 2016 was $1.45 million and his bonus was $3.045 million."

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/26/equ...data-breach-affecting-143-million-people.html

"Equifax CEO's quiet $70 million stock profit

As the company's CEO for the last 12 years, he's presided over massive growth in revenue, profit and share price. As a result, the 57-year old executive has netted a staggering $68.9 million by selling Equifax shares just since the start of 2016, according to filings by the company.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/14/news/companies/equifax-ceo-pay/index.html

Think he's crying all the way to the bank.

Rumor has it there is nothing specifying "Tar 'n Feathers" in his severance package.

 

"After breach, Equifax CEO leaves with $18 million pension, and possibly more..."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/eq...-18-million-pension-and-maybe-more-2017-09-26

 

Something about CEO Smith that no one is reporting (but I will)- This last Equifax breach was by no means the only one suffered by the company. One of their departments suffered a Tax Data beach where hackers accessed PIN numbers to get personal tax data from God knows how many people (EquiFax refused to disclose the number impacted). This happened starting April 2016 and continued until march 2017. The breach was not made public immediately.

Now note this- in Feb 2017 Smith received 122,726 shares of Equifax stock as a bonus of his contract. He then sold 142,838 shares a week later (he still has about 180,000 shares remaining- current stock price around 104); the stock at that time traded for about 130USD/share, netting this guy 18.5 million USD.

Then after the stock sales they disclose the breach.

Total coincidence.

 

Well with his money and good layers, he will most likely not go to jail. ~ Off Topic Political Remarks Removed ~

 

I will kneel to EF.

 

I hope hackers nail his bank accounts. . ...and his credit cards.
...and sell his house.
...and commit crimes using his ID.
...and ...and

 

The board said it could retroactively classify Mr. Smith as having been fired for cause. If that were to happen, Mr. Smith would probably be required to forgo or repay certain compensation.

 

Ok, this post will probably be deleted by the mods for political whatever, but sorry, some things just have to be stated. Even if Smith is eventually denied his remaining funds, how many years will that take? How much time will he have to hide money in Swiss bank accounts, whatever. But all of this would still have to actually happen ... and this guy, if I read a few news articles correctly, sleeps with politicians?

Acadia

 

People like him to not answer to the same justice system as the rest of us. Even if he was charged with something and found guilty, you can bet your bottom dollar he would get a fine, equal to a small amount of his worth, as meaningless to a rich man as to fine an Arab 100 bags of sand.

 

Had Equifax already been subject to the regulation, Reuters said, it would have had to report the breach within 72 hours of its discovery, rather than the 41 days the company took after finding out that consumer information had been compromised.

 

Equifax is hiring a Fraud Monitoring Leader

"...The Fraud Monitoring Leader is responsible for the management of a team of Fraud Monitoring Analysts. These analysts are responsible for monitoring; analyzing and investigating interactions to identify fraudulent access or attempted access to Equifax consumer facing systems in near real-time. One of the primary purposes of this position is to identify, create and execute strategic fraud prevention and detection solutions to minimize risk and exposure of Equifax data..."

https://equifax.gr8people.com/index.gp?method=cappportal.showJob&sysLayoutId=122&opportunityId=11098

His/Her first task will be looking for the 143 million horses that have already left the barn.

 

Except for Canadians (and Brits, Brazilians and Australians too?). NB: All Australian Banks use Equifax.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/equifax-ceo-letter-1.4311856

 

"Credit firms skip hearing on identity theft, data breach

ALBANY, N.Y. – Vowing aggressive action in response to the massive Equifax data breach, a panel of New York lawmakers gathered Thursday to hear from consumer advocates and financial services firms alike about the best ways to safeguard sensitive information and prevent cyberattacks.
Equifax and the two other major credit monitoring firms didn't show up.

The companies' decision not to attend irked lawmakers, who said they'll push ahead with plans for tougher regulations on credit monitoring firms following a cyberattack on Equifax that exposed sensitive information belonging to 143 million Americans, including 8 million New Yorkers...

In response, Equifax spokeswoman Marisa Salcines said that while her company "respectfully declined" to attend the hearing,..."

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/...ip-hearing-on-identity-theft-data-breach.html

 

So Equifax is global and has the personal information of how many people?
Then when you think about the data mining, the facial recognition, the surveillance the intrusion, the chips with hidden operating systems etc, these corporations combined are now dangerously powerful on a global scale. Beyond government control. No wonder they didn't show up for a meeting with lawmakers, why should they when the law means nothing to them.

 

"The Equifax Hack Has the Hallmarks of State-Sponsored Pros

Investigations into the massive breach aren't complete, but the intruders used techniques that have been linked to nation-state hackers in the past..."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...has-all-the-hallmarks-of-state-sponsored-pros