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Equifax is Getting Access to Everyone's Data Again, Thanks to the IRS. Seriously!?

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  • Equifax is Getting Access to Everyone's Data Again, Thanks to the IRS. Seriously!?

    From: Inverse.com



    Equifax is Getting Access to Everyone's Data Again, Thanks to the IRS.
    Seriously!?


    By Grace Lisa Scott o
    October 3, 2017
    Filed Under Cybersecurity, Data, Money & Politics

    In what appears to be more evidence that we are living in a computer simulation that has finally gone off the rails, the Internal Revenue Service has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to Equifax, the least-trusted credit reporting agency in the entire world, so that it can verify taxpayers’ identities.

    On September 30 — the last day of the 2017 fiscal year — a contract worth $7.3 million was awarded to the agency that exposed the sensitive data of 143 million Americans this summer. The contract was posted Tuesday on the Federal Business Opportunities website. According to the IRS notice:

    This action was to establish an order for third party data services from Equifax to verify taxpayer identity and to assist in ongoing identity verification and validations needs of the Service.

    The contract has been awarded so that the IRS doesn’t experience a lapse in identity checks while it resolves a dispute with its previous contractor.

    In case you’ve been living under a rock, it was discovered in September that from May to July, a breach to Equifax’s cybersecurity exposed the highly sensitive data of of the company’s American, Canadian, and British consumers. The information included people’s names, birthdays, driver’s license numbers, credit card numbers, and Social Security numbers, providing a treasure trove for identity thieves.

    In the midst of being awarded large sums of money in government contracts, executives at Equifax are also being investigated by the the Department of Justice. Joseph Loughran, Rodolfo Ploder, and John Gamble sold about $1.8 million in company shares after the breach was discovered, but before it was publicly announced.

    Link: https://www.inverse.com/article/3708...urity-contract
    james.c.hendrickson@gmail.com
    202.468.6043

  • #2
    Off the walls ridiculous. I was watching CNBC today and the coverage of the Senate hearing. Someone brought up the fact that the current CEO was quoted shortly before the breach as stating that fraud was a huge money maker for them due to everyone needing to pay for credit freezes and monitoring. Fishy.

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    • #3
      this is insane ANY company that experienced that sort of breach should never have access to any taxpayer funded project or job period.
      Information has shown many examples of just plain negligence or incompetence up to this breach.
      If they don't care about protecting THEIR money and business who thinks they will care about PUBLIC money and business.

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      • #4
        I can't even think about this without hyperventilating. Between extremely poor password choices and Equifax linking fake websites in their own Twitter accounts, I would have to assume that this was intentional. I have the computer skills of a 4 year old and I know enough to be shocked at their security. People deserve to go to jail for this.

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        • #5
          How can anyone trust Equifax, they're in the news for hacking more than Russia!
          Last edited by james.hendrickson; 03-07-2018, 12:27 PM. Reason: spelling

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