As a result, the Equifax security breach that affected 147 million customers will net those customers, maybe $2.04 each because only $300 million is slated for the consumers affected by the breach. These security breaches, as well as folks finding a way to use my credit card to charge custard at Andy’s in Oklahoma are stunning to me. I am locked out of my own accounts more than I care to admit. If I use a different computer to log in or get a new computer and try to log in, Chase chases me away. My own accounts are frozen. I am unable to do any banking because they detected that I had a different computer. I have trouble getting into my Compression Hosiery account, yet there are human beings who manage to lift the account information of 147 million people. How is this possible?
However, as troubling as the ease with which geeks get into accounts is, the Equifax case is troubling on a whole different level. Documents were left online and unprotected. People at the top of the company dumped their Equifax stock. Three of the four top executives sold $1.8 million in Equifax stock in the days before the public announcement of the breach. A board report exonerated the officers. But the officer slated to be the next global information officer was charged with insider trading.
Bad enough that 147 million have to deal with their personal information being made public, but to think that someone avoided losses on his Equifax stock before the announcement is low. Illegal, and low. The stock took a dive, and so have the company’s profits. Now if they could just sit down with some of the geeks to find the weak spots in their system. The people they have on staff seem to have my skill levels.