Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
This July 21, 2012, file photo shows signage at the corporate headquarters of Equifax Inc. in Atlanta. Attacks launched by cybercriminals wreak havoc and cause disruption as more of everyday life moves online.
Equifax is not off the hook for its massive 2017 data breach, lawmakers told FOX Business, despite a noticeable lack of progress on new legislation. Lawmakers conducted a series of hearings on Capitol Hill throughout the final months of 2017, which featured former Equifax CEO Richard Smith and Interim CEO Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., as well as a slew of expert witnesses.
Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer apologized on Wednesday for two massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents for at least one of them, at a hearing on the growing number of cyber attacks on major U.S. companies. "As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users," she told the Senate Commerce Committee, testifying alongside the interim and former CEOs of Equifax Inc and a senior Verizon Communications Inc executive.
WASHINGTON: Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer and the current and former CEOs of Equifax Inc will testify before a U.S. Senate panel on Nov. 8 on two massive data breaches, a committee spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. Verizon Communications Inc, the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc's assets in June.
Equifax Inc. took part of its website offline Thursday after code on the site redirected users to a malicious URL urging them to download malware. Also Thursday, a top Republican congressman introduced a bill that would stop credit reporting companies such as Equifax from using Social Security numbers to verify Americans' identities.
More shocking than the news of the recent data hack at Equifax may have been the news that its departing CEO, Richard Smith, might take with him an estimated $90 million in compensation. Amounts like these often spur efforts to curb executive pay through government intervention.
The move came after an independent security analyst on Wednesday found part of Equifax's website was under the control of attackers trying to trick visitors into installing fraudulent Adobe Flash updates that could infect computers with malware, the technology news website Ars Technica reported. "We are aware of the situation identified on the equifax.com website in the credit report assistance link," Equifax spokesman Wyatt Jefferies said in an email.
Former chairman and CEO of Equifax Richard F. Smith, scratches his head as he testifies before the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) The former chairman and CEO of Equifax says the challenge of responding to the concerns of tens of millions of consumers in the wake of a massive data breach proved overwhelming, and regrettably, his company made mistakes.
Wearing a top hat, monocle, and white mustache, the character sat directly behind former Equifax CEO Richard Smith as he testified before the committee on Wednesday. The ruse was organized by progressive nonprofits Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform.
The company at the center of the biggest breach of personal information just signed a contract with the federal government to provide, well, personal information. The Internal Revenue Service signed a $7.25 million contract with Equifax last month.
Former chairman and CEO of Equifax Richard F. Smith, scratches his head as he testifies before the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) less Former chairman and CEO of Equifax Richard F. Smith, scratches his head as he testifies before the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill in ... more Former chairman and CEO of Equifax Richard F. Smith pauses as he testifies before the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017.
Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the massive data breach at Equifax , which potentially exposed the personal information of up to 143 million Americans, including their Social Security and driver's license numbers. United States Attorney John A. Horn, the federal prosecutor in Atlanta, said in a statement that his office was working with the F.B.I. to investigate the cyberattack.
Credit agency Equifax traced the theft of sensitive information about 143 million Americans to a software flaw that could have been fixed well before the burglary occurred, further undermining its credibility as the guardian of personal data that can easily be used for identity theft. Equifax identified a weakness in an open-source software package called Apache Struts as the technological crack that allowed hackers to heist Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and full legal names from a massive database maintained primarily for lenders.
The massive data breach at Equifax Inc. is "exhibit A" on why regulation is essential in the U.S. free-market economy, second-ranking Senate Democrat Dick Durbin said Monday. "We are duty-bound to step in on behalf of innocent citizens who are going to pay a price," Durbin said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The credit-monitoring company, which revealed on Thursday a massive cyberattack on its national database, took heat from a host of elected officials for offering to help victims of the attack - but only if they gave up their right to sue the Atlanta company. The company, which said it discovered the hack in July, set up a special site to offer free credit monitoring to victims of the attack.
Equifax is blaming an unspecified "website application vulnerability" in hackers' ability to get personal information on 143 million Americans. Security experts say it's hard to say for sure without more information, but such vulnerabilities typically don't require a lot of sophistication to exploit.
Equifax said three top executives who sold nearly $2 million in company stock before a massive security breach was announced "had no knowledge" of the incident beforehand, according to an emailed statement from the credit-monitoring agency. The three executives who sold a small percentage of their Equifax shares on Tuesday, August 1, and Wednesday, August 2 " the statement said, hours after Equifax announced that 143 million people in the US were affected by the security breach that took place from mid-May to July 2017.