Senators Rip Credit-Reporting Model in Wake of Equifax Breach

The Equifax hacking sparked widespread outrage, as well as bipartisan demands for more information from the company on how the security debacle happened and what steps the company is taking to handle the fallout. At this time, he said, he was unaware of the scope of the damage. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. “You provided the bricks”.

Several lawmakers on Wednesday also questioned why Equifax had been granted a contract with the Internal Revenue Service to help verify taxpayer data. “Equifax was entrusted with Americans’ private data and we let them down”, he told the House panel in prepared remarks.

While millions of additional US consumers may have been affected by the breach, the review found no evidence that hackers accessed databases outside the USA, which nixes previous estimates that as many as 100,000 Canadian citizens had been impacted.

“Many times it’s the symbolic acts” that matter, said Heitkamp.

On Aug. 2, the company alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and retained a law firm and consulting firm to provide advice.

But some senators weren’t buying it.

Kelly was already aware of the problem, having been informed July 30 by Equifax’s chief security officer of the “suspicious activity”, and had notified Smith by email, the former CEO acknowledged. The chief attorney approved the executives’ stock sales on August 1 and August 2.

“This simply is not a company that deserves to be trusted with Americans’ data”, said Sen.

Smith said he would expect Equifax to “cooperate” with “particular legislation that arises out of this horrific breach”. On Tuesday night, reports emerged that the IRS had granted a $7 million fraud-prevention contract to Equifax on September 29, well after the breach was announced.

“This really stinks. It smells really bad”. “If you think you’re safe, that’s probably when you’re not”, he said. Raymond “Jon” Tester, D-Mont. The next day Equifax’s security team was notified by email.

Equifax says the review also determined that some Canadians had their credit card information hacked and will be mailing out written notices to all potentially impacted Canadians, but did not provide a specific estimate.

So, what happened indoors that made EQUIFAX the company responsible of the biggest cyberattack in history? Representative Doris Matsui, a Democrat from California, said that should change. “We’re here today to do what Equifax failed to do, and that’s put consumers first”.

In addition to providing consumer credit reports, Equifax offers products to protect people’s data from misuse.

“Equifax is making money-millions of dollars-off its own screw-up”, Warren told Smith during the hearing.

“Yes, it did”, Smith answered. “The incentives in this industry are completely out of whack”, she said. Credit freezes-which have been widely recommended in the wake of the Equifax breach as a way to prevent identity theft-typically cost between $3 and $10, and fees are also charged anytime a customer wants to lift or reinstate a freeze. “But Equifax will be just fine-heck, it could actually come out ahead”.