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IRS freezes its fraud prevention contract with Equifax
The IRS got a lot of flak from both ordinary citizens and lawmakers when it awarded Equifax a fraud prevention contract earlier this month. After all, they forged their partnership after the credit reporting agency revealed that it recently suffered a massive security breach that affected 145 million Americans. Now, after reports came out that an adware installer lived in the agency's website, IRS has decided to temporarily suspend the $7.2 million, no-bid contract.
Equifax may have been hacked again (update: not a breach)
When Equifax's interim CEO penned a letter of apology on The Wall Street Journal, he admitted that it will take a lot of effort to regain people's trust. Unfortunately, the company still seems to be lacking when it comes to security, because according to Ars Technica, it's been hacked yet again. Independent security analyst Randy Abrams told Ars that he was redirected to hxxp:centerbluray.info and was met with a Flash download when he went to equifax.com to contest a false info on his credit report.
IRS hands fraud prevention contract to Equifax despite massive hack
You'd think that government agencies would be reticent to work with Equifax given that it just exposed the private info of more than 145 million people through a preventable hack, but a massive data breach apparently isn't enough of a deterrent. The Internal Revenue Service recently awarded Equifax a fraud prevention contract that will have it verifying taxpayer identities. And crucially, it was a no-bid, "sole source" contract -- Equifax was deemed the only company capable of fulfilling demand.
Former Equifax CEO blames breach on one IT employee
The Equifax data breach that leaked information on the now-145 million people was caused by a vulnerability in Apache's Struts system. Trouble is, the software provider supplied a patch back in March that should have eliminated that vulnerability. But Equifax's former CEO (who suddenly retired last week) told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that a single IT technician was at fault for the whole thing after they failed to install the patch.
Equifax breach shows signs of a possible state-sponsored hack
Ever since word of the Equifax hack got out, there's been one lingering question: was it a state-sponsored attack, or just criminals who took advantage of a security hole? At the moment, it looks like it might be the former. Bloomberg sources have shed light on the ongoing investigations into the breach, and they claim there are signs of a government's involvement. The initial group of hackers weren't particularly experienced, according to the tipsters, but they handed things over to a more "sophisticated" team. There are even hints that this might be the work of Chinese intelligence agents, although it's not yet clear who's responsible.
Equifax CEO Richard Smith suddenly decides to ‘retire’
Equifax has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, following a chain of blunders and mismanagement after it revealed that a security breach leaked the personal data of 143 million people. This morning, the CEO of Equifax and chairman of its board, Richard Smith, retired effective immediately.
Equifax stock sales prompt DOJ investigation for insider trading
Things are about to get even worse for Equifax, and rightfully so. According to reports from Bloomberg, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into Equifax officials' stock sales just before the announcement of the security breach that exposed data from 143 million US consumers. Equifax CFO John Gamble, President of US Information Solutions Joseph Loughran and President of Workforce Solutions Rodolfo Ploder dumped nearly $1.8 million in stock just after the company discovered the breach and about a month before it was announced. Equifax has maintained that the three didn't know about the breach when they sold the stock.
Senate bill calls for free credit freezes after Equifax breach
US Senator Elizabeth Warren and a handful of her Democratic peers have introduced a bill intended to give consumers more control over the information collected by credit-reporting agencies including Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. The Freedom From Equifax Exploitation Act is in response to a massive security breach at Equifax that compromised the personal information of 143 million people. Equifax reported the hack on September 7th, though the attack itself was live from mid-May through the end of July.
The FTC is investigating Equifax's data breach
It's been a long week for Equifax, sure, but that's to say nothing about the 143 million consumers affected by the massive financial data breach. In a move that should bode well for the latter while placing more scrutiny on the former, the Federal Trade Commission has officially announced that it's looking into the matter. "The FTC typically does not comment on ongoing investigations," spokesperson Peter Kaplan said in a statement to Reuters. "However, in light of the intense public interest and the potential impact of this matter, I can confirm that FT staff is investigating the Equifax data breach."
Equifax waives credit freeze fees after facing backlash
Equifax has learned the hard way that people don't appreciate having to pay $10 for protection when it's not their fault their personal details were compromised. Especially if that $10 solution has its own security flaw. That's why it's now offering to waive all credit freeze fees to prevent identity thieves from opening credit lines in the names of the 143 million Americans affected by the massive cyberattack it suffered. You won't even have to give up your right to join a class action by taking up the bureau on its offer. The bad news is that it will only waive fees for the next 30 days, so you may want to tell your friends to tell their friends to take advantage of the offer while it lasts.
Equifax security breach leaks personal info of 143 million US consumers
One of the largest security breaches ever has come to light today as Equifax revealed attackers used an exploit on its website to access records for 143 million US citizens (for reference, the US has a population for 323 million or so, that's about 44 percent). The oldest of the three major US credit bureaus, it maintains information on over 800 million people for credit and insurance reports, which is also a juicy target for anyone trying to steal data. Equifax says the breach lasted from mid-May through July 29th when it was detected. The criminals had access to information that could allow them to create or take over accounts for many of the people impacted since they have names, addresses, birth dates, social security numbers and "in some cases" drivers license numbers. An unspecified number of UK and Canadian residents were hit, plus the credit card numbers for 209,000 people and certain dispute documents for 182,000 people in the US.
