Equifax CEO Resigns After Historic Data Breach

[Guest]

Weeks after it revealed a data breach that compromised the personal data of 143 million Americans, Equifax announced the retirement of chairman and CEO Richard Smith.

Equifax CEO Resigns After Historic Data Breach : Read more

 

[JamesSneed]

This is just ridiculous.

 

[g-unit1111]

Resigns? He put half the country in financial jeopardy. He should be investigated and prosecuted to the maximum extent the law allows.

 

[dark_lord69]

Equifax = We have your info without your permission
I would like to see all 3 go down in flames and replaced by a new branch of government.

Why?
-because it affects nearly 100% of americans
-because it's too important to leave to private companies to F-up
-wrong items are never corrected unless you submit a letter/correction request
-For political leaders credit reporting companies fix their credit reports for them so they don't have to deal with the nightmares that can happen. (must be nice) That's also way the government allows these companies. If your opinion matters (in politics) your credit history will be managed for you so you continue to have a positive opinion of these companies.

 

[gangrel]

And putting it completely in the government's hands is better? NOT. While I'd be somewhat concerned about intentional misuse, my primary concern is that government systems and code are FAR behind industry.

That said, one thing I question is the degree of oversight, and the general effects of deregulation. How much accountability is there, really? The CEO is unlikely to go to jail; I'm not sure he'll ever get fined. Oh, he got fired...and odds are, will never work again. Poor boy only has the remains of his 8-digit annual salary and stock options to fall back on. Wahh. Gee, he won't be able to attend all 4 Grand Slams, if he's a tennis guy...he'll have to cut back to just 2. Terrible....feel for him.............

Not that there's a snowball's chance of adequate compensation, should this really blow up.

 

[g-unit1111]

Equifax = We have your info without your permission
I would like to see all 3 go down in flames and replaced by a new branch of government.

Why?
-because it affects nearly 100% of americans
-because it's too important to leave to private companies to F-up
-wrong items are never corrected unless you submit a letter/correction request
-For political leaders credit reporting companies fix their credit reports for them so they don't have to deal with the nightmares that can happen. (must be nice) That's also way the government allows these companies. If your opinion matters (in politics) your credit history will be managed for you so you continue to have a positive opinion of these companies.

You are aware that the government already has *TONS* of safeguards in place to protect consumers from credit fraud right? Most were implemented under FDR during the Great Depression.

 

[dstarr3]

Let me guess, he got a $500,000,000 exit bonus on top of it.

 

[kookykrazee]

Did he resign or retire? I have read articles stating both.

 

[gangrel]

"Resign" appears to be much more commonly used.

Also, CEOs commonly announce retirement dates 12-18 months in advance, in order to promote a smoother transition and not shake investor confidence. So resign is more accurate, but the action is also triggering retirement clauses (including an $18M *pension*.)

 

[ubercake]

The fact that one company can hold enough information that someone else can assume your identity on paper is scary. In the U.S. we have 3 bureaus with this information. The credit bureaus, if they are going to continue to hold this information, need to be held to the highest security standards in order to protect the citizens of any nation utilizing them. The crime of allowing the data to be compromised to this extent needs to be punished and a precedent set that makes each of the bureaus question whether they should continue to exist.

Someone fraudulently uses your bankcard? You see it on your statement or the bank notices unusual activity and the bank issues you a new card/number.

Someone fraudulently uses your SSN (and you may not even know it's in use)? Unless you can prove to the U.S. government that you have been damaged in some way by the fraudulent use of your SSN, you won't be issued a new SSN.

I say sign this petition so SSN becomes a worthless commodity and they come up with a new way to ID us all that is more than a simple number:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/equifax-data-breach-and-social-security-numbers-what-government-doing-protect-143-million-citizens

 

[gangrel]

It's actually likely, IMO, that people are already considering the issue. It's an extremely complex problem because the SSN is ubiquitous, and also to do it in a way that doesn't involve privacy issues.

I don't think such a massive change is necessary. It's clear that there were major security issues, which should be addressed. For example, the seurity patch that was not applied? Require confirmation that all critical patches are installed. The situation where the admin/admin log-in was left active...require a security audit for all servers.

Finally, it is not clear to me that any actual crime was committed by Equifax. They broke trust; they are absolutely open to civil liability. But not necessarily criminal.

 

[hellwig]

What's so disgusting to me is that until the Fair and Accurately reflect Credit Transactions Act amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, getting access to YOUR information was not a right. These credit agencies gather this info without our knowledge or consent, then had the gall to tell you it was THEIR information and you couldn't see it without paying.

Equifax should be barred from collecting any further information or reporting on credit ratings and held criminally liable for the outcome of thi..... hah, I almost convinced myself that our corrupt government would do that.

 

[g-unit1111]

The fact that one company can hold enough information that someone else can assume your identity on paper is scary. In the U.S. we have 3 bureaus with this information. The credit bureaus, if they are going to continue to hold this information, need to be held to the highest security standards in order to protect the citizens of any nation utilizing them. The crime of allowing the data to be compromised to this extent needs to be punished and a precedent set that makes each of the bureaus question whether they should continue to exist.

I don't want to go too far into GRAPES territory but John Oliver did an awesome piece on Equifax last year and it was stunning how many times they got people confused with people who are deceased.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRrDsbUdY_k&t=126s

 

[hellwig]

Finally, it is not clear to me that any actual crime was committed by Equifax. They broke trust; they are absolutely open to civil liability. But not necessarily criminal.

Depends on the nature of the information they are allowed to collect and store. Not just anyone gets access to social security numbers. If someone not privileged to that information were to gain access to the information through provable negligence (say, knowing about a security hole they refused to patch for months), certainly that should have a criminal penalty attached to it (probably doesn't, but it should).

After all, if it was found out I had a database of the social security numbers of nearly every American, is that a civil or criminal issue? If having data could be criminal, accidentally releasing that data (whether legally allowed to store it or not) should also be criminal.

 

[JamesSneed]

The fact that one company can hold enough information that someone else can assume your identity on paper is scary. In the U.S. we have 3 bureaus with this information. The credit bureaus, if they are going to continue to hold this information, need to be held to the highest security standards in order to protect the citizens of any nation utilizing them. The crime of allowing the data to be compromised to this extent needs to be punished and a precedent set that makes each of the bureaus question whether they should continue to exist.

Someone fraudulently uses your bankcard? You see it on your statement or the bank notices unusual activity and the bank issues you a new card/number.

Someone fraudulently uses your SSN (and you may not even know it's in use)? Unless you can prove to the U.S. government that you have been damaged in some way by the fraudulent use of your SSN, you won't be issued a new SSN.

I say sign this petition so SSN becomes a worthless commodity and they come up with a new way to ID us all that is more than a simple number:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/equifax-data-breach-and-social-security-numbers-what-government-doing-protect-143-million-citizens

Agree and signed the petition. Honestly we need regulations and auditors that are actual security experts to enforce all of the various regulations like encrypting the data at rest, in flight, etc. We also have to stop using a government ID for non government things such as credit or house utilities(that's even if this petition passes to come up with a new type of ID). Atmos Energy asked me for my SSN and when I refused I had to escalate it just to get service without an SSN which is crazy. So much is failing in today's online world as far as credit and identity theft is concerned.

 

[JamesSneed]

The petition needs 20 more signatures to get a response. At 99,980 signatures right now.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/equifax-data-breach-and-social-security-numbers-what-government-doing-protect-143-million-citizens

 

[dstarr3]

The petition needs 20 more signatures to get a response. At 99,980 signatures right now.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/equifax-data-breach-and-social-security-numbers-what-government-doing-protect-143-million-citizens

You have that backwards. It has 20 signatures and needs 99,980 more.

 

[JamesSneed]

The petition needs 20 more signatures to get a response. At 99,980 signatures right now.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/equifax-data-breach-and-social-security-numbers-what-government-doing-protect-143-million-citizens

You have that backwards. It has 20 signatures and needs 99,980 more.

Well hell you are right. Mental note, drink coffee then read any other order has unexpected results.

 

[ubercake]

Notice how the media has buried this story beneath other extremely notable things going on in the world and hasn't brought it back to the forefront of the news?