Equifax

Oh no! Your data has been breached!!! What are you going to do? Call the provider? Well, evidently, that did not work with Equifax. Here's a rundown: after Equifax received reports of hacked data, it was slow to respond, responding 18 days after. Thus, accounts were breached and priceless data was stolen. As if the data break itself was bad enough, the problem is the lack of action by the poeple higher-up.

The financial data of 143 million Americans was tampered with. San Francisco, Massachusetts, and so many other places are all suing Equifax, with many calling for the "corporate death penalty" where a company is forced to dissolve. Usually when these situations happen, it is with businesses that don't rely focus on cybersecurity. Airline companies and Barnes & Nobles have all been hacked before, but however bad they were it is understandable as they don't specialize in cybersecurity.

The even bigger problem is in the future when Americans will not be able to trust these companies. Most Americans did not even know that Equifax retained their information, as it was transferred over. Especially since people were not made aware of Equifax's possession of their data, Equifax should have been more clear and informative in it's public announcements.

Companies like Equifax are essential for today, when consumers are making more and more and larger and larger purchases. These companies store the data to be referenced upon later like when purchasing a house.

Companies like Equifax cannot get away from selling data to others and certainly without acknowledgement, and especially should not be so nontransparent in taking action. Congress should take more action and enact more regulations because problems like these will only get worse as technology spreads.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-equifax-disaster-points-to-a-much-bigger-problem/2017/09/21/4bd683da-9ee3-11e7-9083-fbfddf6804c2_story.html?utm_term=.3b6d662e7d46

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/smarter-living/equifax-hack-tips.html

https://www.wired.com/story/equifax-deserves-the-corporate-death-penalty/