Security Breach is Negative for Equifax’s Credit Rating Credit scoring firm Equifax' security breach will "hurt its reputation as a custodian of consumer data," says Moody's. By Amey Stone Sept. 8, 2017 4:27 p.m. ET Turnabout is fair play. Moody's Investors Servicereported Friday that it sees it as credit-negative that credit scoring firm Equifax(EFX) exposed the most sensitive personal data on 143 million consumers to hackers in a security breach. After all, the company's main job is to safely and accurately collect and dispense credit information. "It will impede the company’s solid earnings growth over the next 3 to 4 quarters and hurt its reputation as a custodian of consumer data for over 200 million U.S. consumers," finds senior analystRaj Joshi. But Moody's isn't yet lowering its Baa1 rating on Equifax (a lower tier of investment grade), and is even keeping its outlook stable. "We expect the impact of the security breach will only modestly erode its solid credit metrics and liquidity," Joshi writes. Plus, while the breach happened through Equifax's consumer-facing website, data about its business customers weren't exposed. Moody's notes: However, the company has found no evidence of unauthorized access to its core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases which underpins its business-to-business credit reporting and ancillary services in the core US Information Solutions segment (USIS). In addition, there were no reported breaches in Equifax’s Work Number employment and income data repository which drives its Workforce Solutions segment revenues. Equifax' stocks fell $19, or 14%, Friday to close at $123.23. http://www.barrons.com/articles/security-breach-is-negative-for-equifaxs-credit-rating-1504902472
Credit card fraud spikes after Equifax cyber-attack http://nypost.com/2017/09/08/credit-card-fraud-spikes-after-equifax-cyber-attack/
Could Equifax breach finally end cybersecurity stupor? The Equifax Inc. hack may be the alarm bell that finally jolts Congress and large enterprises out of their somnambulance and forces them to do something meaningful about cybersecurity. At least that’s the hope of one of the computer industry’s largest trade associations. (SiliconANGLE)
• Equifax's Insider Deals Look Worse After New Revelations The Department of Justice confirmed it had launched a criminal investigation into stock transactions by Equifax executives in the context of its data breach. Bloomberg reported Monday that Equifax had been aware of a security breach already in March (four months before the July breach that it revealed earlier this month) and had hired Mandiant, a cyber security consultant, to investigate it. In other hacking-related news, it emerged that millions of people had downloaded malware onto their computers through CCleaner, an app designed to tidy up hard disks. Fortune
EFX is F'd. They need to be turned into a "not for profit" credit monitoring agency. 1 year free. Gimmee a f'ing break!!!!! You don't think this data.... YOUR DATA.... can be sat on for a few years? They mine and then sell every frickin thing you do without your permission. Thats all well and good, but if you want to be in this business, well bitch, it comes with risk. And you just blew up your account. Even at $94.... this f'r needs to go to ZERO.
They have their place.... they serve a purpose.... but don't make ME pay to monitor YOUR fuck ups. Thats BS. Collect all you want from banks that buy your products.... but there is no fucking way American consumers should be forcibly coerced to pay $27/month into their coffers to monitor inefficiencies in that which they richly profit from. As I said the night this first happened... I hope they drag that CEO behind a f'ing F-150.