The Equifax credit reporting company was breached by a hacker more than a month and a half ago. It took Equifax more than a month to advise the 143 million Americans who have used the service that cybercriminals may have stolen their names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, physical addresses and driver’s license numbers. Why it took them so long is a matter of guesswork. “Your information may have been stolen. We don’t care.”
In a related case, which could turn out to be an ethical doozy, it seems as though principals in the company sold millions of dollars of Equifax stock before the breach was announced. If the SEC finds merit to investigate, Equifax could have a whole new set of problems.
Equifax hardly does what it does out of charity. As a credit-reporting agency they monitor and report on the financial health, if you will, of millions of potential “borrowers.” How do they do this? They get data from credit card companies, banks, retailers and lenders and often without you knowing.
As to this major hack, it is so huge that the FBI is investigating the hack, and it has been reported to the U.S. Treasury Secretary and on up to President Trump’s homeland security adviser. 
Americans are the lucky ones!
If you are among the 143 million whose identity has been stolen from Equifax consider yourself lucky compared to Equifax users who are outside of the United States. Equifax is also used by consumers in Canada and the United Kingdom. The breach has also affected them. Equifax told them so.
However, in the U.S. the company has provided a free link so that American customers who believe they might have been affected can easily look up their names and addresses to determine if their personal information has been stolen.
In Canada and the United Kingdom, the link does not work. Customers who believe they may have been breached, cannot confirm if they have been breached or not. The company apparently cannot take the time to tell them.
In addition, in the U.S., Equifax is free. In Canada, Equifax offers credit monitoring for $19.95 per month. For nearly CDN $20 per month, and especially during this time, the company offers virtually nothing in return during this period in terms of customer support, except to say that it is still investigating. In the United Kingdom, banks and utility companies use Equifax to perform credit checks. Again, consumers in the U.K. are being told the matter is “under investigation.” I suppose the passing of Abraham Lincoln is still under investigation by historians, but at least he was honest.
The Ethical Picture
This is a case of fraud, and please believe me when I tell you that some of the stolen information will be fraudulently used. This fraud is about much more than the hack and stolen information of Equifax. It smacks of arrogance, that is true, but it also begs the ethical question of the vulnerability of our private information, how Equifax gains that information and how they treat our captured information once they have it in their database.
Equifax is in 24 countries with hundreds of millions of “pieces” of consumer information. The 143 million is a modest percentage of the 800 million to 900 million accounts in its database. Chances are your information is somewhere in their database.
I don’t know about you, but I have never received communication from Equifax as to how they have come into possession my personal information, but that is a side issue for the time being. They are a for-profit company not a nonprofit. They “sell” our credit information throughout the world. Don’t they owe us something in return? Don’t they owe us a sense of safety and security in the very least? Beyond that, if our information is stolen from their database, shouldn’t we be immediately told of that breach?
The way the credit reporting agencies such as Equifax work places all of the burden on us, and nothing at all on them. There is an ethical balance that needs to be corrected. Equifax badly needs to correct it. “Your information may have been stolen. We don’t care.”
-YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
