Equifax’s former CEO admits wrongdoing in massive hack
Equifax’s former CEO admits wrongdoing in massive hack
After he resigned on September 26, 2017, Equifax’s former CEO, Richard Smith apologized in an interview with The Los Angeles Times for the massive hack of Equifax’s data, citing details of “ways the company messed up.” The hack put the personal data of nearly 143 million Americans at risk. Many didn’t know even know they had Equifax accounts.
“Equifax was entrusted with Americans’ private data and we let them down,” Smith said. “The company failed to protect sensitive information from falling into the hands of wrongdoers.”
The Times reported that Equifax’s data breach problems began on the 8th of March “when the Department of Homeland Security sent a notice to the company about the need to patch a vulnerability in its software called Apache Struts.…”
Smith said Equifax failed to find versions of Apache Struts in its computers “so the vulnerability remained…’ and the hack began on May 13, according to The Times. Smith says he learned about the breach on the 31st of July. The company didn’t announce it until the 7th of September leaving victims’ private data exposed for nearly six weeks.
USA Today reported that Equifax made another huge mistake after the breach. It began mistakenly sending people to a “bogus web site” that hackers set up. It was a fake with a similar address to the one Equifax created to help victims” determine if their personal data had been stolen. Visitors to the bogus site were instructed to enter their names, Social Security numbers and birth dates – the exact information that hackers need to access their accounts for years, since these facts don’t change.
The hack can cause surprising damage
According to Consumer Reports, those three facts are all that hackers need to steal benefits from victims’ “private health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid” and use those benefits to pay for their own medical treatments and prescriptions. It also warned hackers can change victims’ IRS tax records to get refunds they don’t deserve, a hack that “can take months to straighten out.” Aside from credit card accounts and other financial accounts that hackers can break into, if they commit crimes, they can claim to be the person they hacked, giving victims a criminal record.
St. Louis Personal Injury Lawyer Wyatt Wright: Victims can sue Equifax
There is compensation for this kind of massive, potentially long lasting wrong doing by an irresponsible company that is liable for serious disruptions in the personal lives of millions of Americans. For years, Wyatt Wright has brought justice to victims of negligent companies that put customers at risk. Wyatt Wright is one of America’s top trial lawyers. His legal awards are proof of the top awards he secures for these clients. Clients only pay fees agreed upon in advance, when cases are successfully concluded. Calls and evaluations are free.