Just today, I read something online that is rather amusing. A stranger showed up to the recent hearings of the Equifax security breach dressed as Mr. Monopoly, with the top hat, white moustache, tuxedo and all. I don’t know if he was wearing spats, but nevertheless the implication was there all the same: we are frequently, seemingly objects in some grand game that only the unethical get to play. Is anyone in Washington watching the Ethical Henhouse?
Sometimes unethical behavior on a massive, governmental level can really make us scratch our heads.
Oh no, you didn’t
Just a few weeks ago, the American (and Canadian) public were made aware that Equifax had its seemingly impenetrable system breached by hackers. The hackers were able to gain access to the financial information of at least 145 million, along with Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
In the hearings, the lawmakers were fascinated to know how such a breach could occur. The executives admitted that they made mistakes in security. President of Equifax, Richard Smith apologized to the panel. If you own or rent a home, own a business, bought a new car, boat, motorcycle, if you have a credit card, took out a loan, have insurance or most any other monetary instrument, Equifax probably knows about you. Now the hackers know about you as well.
Mr. Monopoly’s moustache is now officially spinning.
The IRS has just signed a $7.25 million contract with Equifax. It was a no-bid contract, for Equifax to provide the IRS with taxpayer and personal identity verification services. The IRS has stated that Equifax was the only company who could provide these service, and that the government couldn’t allow identification services to lapse. Therefore, the IRS which was breached with your official tax information about 18 months ago, is entrusting Equifax, breached last month, with your personal and financial data.
It was Representative Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who has recently come out with a classic statement in a letter he wrote to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. In the letter he states that he “initially thought his staff was sharing a copy of the Onion, a humor newspaper, until he realized the story about the contract was true.”
Members of Congress who normally give the IRS a pass on just about everything, are properly outraged. Most specifically the lawmakers are hard-pressed to determine how an organization that has just allowed one of the biggest breaches in the history (certainly) of financial data was awarded a multi-million dollar (presumably) annual contract with the Internal Revenue Service without having to competitively bid! I will circumvent all of the hearings and explain that this occurred because of bad ethics.
No one cares about the ethical henhouse!
Whether the corner grocer or the IRS is involved, every scandal involves three distinct elements: opportunity, need and rationalization.
In terms of opportunity, the IRS somehow saw themselves as “the brightest guys in the room.” The executives within the organization felt that they knew things you could not possibly fathom. They wanted Equifax because they apparently felt they knew that no other agency on earth could meet their needs. Of course, they didn’t open it up to competitive bidding so we will never know.
In terms of need, the IRS felt so rushed and so pressured to find a quick and easy solution, they could not comprehend the development of a more secure system by another vendor. Instead, they marched ahead and pushed the hiring of Equifax through even though they knew they would get skewered for their decision. They truly, did not care.
Finally, they rationalized no one would really notice except, perhaps, 145 million people, businesses and nonprofits. Rationalization is usually borne of arrogance. Who can possibly be more arrogant than the IRS?
As I reflect on this piece of fraud, the fraud the IRS is attempting to put over on us before they have had a chance to allow competitive bidding or scrutiny of other technologies or even a thorough study of Equifax improvements since the breach, I am struck by Social Security numbers. Whole companies have been set-up to presumably safeguard our numbers and most of us are absolutely paranoid about someone stealing them. How absurd, then. That between Equifax and Social Security breaches our numbers might as well be displayed on billboards. It gives me no comfort to know they are now sharing information. Is anyone in Washington Watching the Ethical Henhouse?
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