What is the impact of the Equifax cybersecurity breach on American voters?

[Vanadium 50]

The latest - someone set up a fake Equifax site...and then Equifax linked to it.

So much for "we're sorry...we'll be more careful...this won't happen again..."

 

[Drakkith]

The latest - someone set up a fake Equifax site...and then Equifax linked to it.

So much for "we're sorry...we'll be more careful...this won't happen again..."

It's okay. They still have one more strike till they're out.

...we're talking about baseball, right?

 

[Vanadium 50]

The thing I don't get is the nonchalance of their actual customers. You'd think they would conclude that Equifax's data is unreliable. But somehow they have come to the conclusion that even though Equifax is a collection of incompetent stumblebums, their data on all of us is perfect.

 

[russ_watters]

The thing I don't get is the nonchalance of their actual customers. You'd think they would conclude that Equifax's data is unreliable. But somehow they have come to the conclusion that even though Equifax is a collection of incompetent stumblebums, their data on all of us is perfect.

Where does the implication that their data is unreliable come from?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Where does the implication that their data is unreliable come from?

From the conclusion that if a company is sloppy with X it is sloppy with Y. Yes, it's not necessarily true, but it's a good place to make your bet.

Not every Chipolte has a contamination problem. Not every United passenger gets the snot beat out of him. But the companies still took a drubbing.

 

[russ_watters]

From the conclusion that if a company is sloppy with X it is sloppy with Y. Yes, it's not necessarily true, but it's a good place to make your bet.

Not every Chipolte has a contamination problem. Not every United passenger gets the snot beat out of him. But the companies still took a drubbing.

Well, those were direct impacts to the customer, so no imagination was required to extend them to broader impact*. So sure, it's reasonable to assume similar sloppiness elsewhere in the business, but someone (or a million separate someones) would have to think of a theoretically possible way a similar sloppiness could harm a customer. I think that's just too indirect.

*And actually, for Chipoltle it is potentially even worse since depending on the cause of the food contamination (I'm not that familiar) it could be that a single failure affects a large number of locations if it happens in the supply chain and not at the restaurant(s).

 

[Ygggdrasil]

IRS awards multimillion-dollar fraud-prevention contract to Equifax

The IRS will pay Equifax $7.25 million to verify taxpayer identities and help prevent fraud under a no-bid contract issued last week, even as lawmakers lash the embattled company about a massive security breach that exposed personal information of as many as 145.5 million Americans.

A contract award for Equifax's data services was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities database Sept. 30 — the final day of the fiscal year. The credit agency will "verify taxpayer identity" and "assist in ongoing identity verification and validations" at the IRS, according to the award.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/03/equifax-irs-fraud-protection-contract-243419