All these days many media resources reported the news related to the cyber attack on Equifax and its data breach concerns. But did anyone pay attention to the point that the credit reporting agency is actually benefiting from the said data breach- if not now, in near future…?
This was exactly the point raised by US Senator Elizabeth Warren at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Wednesday which was attended by Richard Smith the former CEO of Equifax.
Last Thursday, Smith announced that he is going to step down as a CEO and is ready to take the wholesome blame of the cyber attack which targeted his company in May/June of this year.
He also announced that all those customers who were impacted by the breach will be offered fraud protection tools and services for 2 full years at zero cost.
Warren, who has been one of the finest critics of US finance industry from years said that Equifax’s fraud protection services which are being offered for free now are actually a sales tactic to gain profits in future.
She said that the services which are being offered might be free for now. But in future i.e after 2 years they will open the revenue gates for the company as many consumers will probably choose to start paying for the services.
Note- Smith was facing his 2nd of the 4 congressional hearings this week on the breach which led to the personal data theft of 145.5 Americans. This leaked info includes social security numbers and drivers license info.
What’s surprising in this data breach saga is that Equifax has still managed to trounce the breach controversy and bag a contract from the federal government.
The Louisiana Republican noted on Tuesday that Equifax has received a $7.25 million contract from IRS to verify taxpayers identities and help with fraud prevention.
Senator John Kennedy expressed his surprise at this development and added that tarot cards might be fully favoring the company and this might made the Internal Revenue Service(IRS) officials hand over the contract to Equifax.
More such interesting details on the hearing will be updated shortly!
