The Equifax hacks are a case study in why we need better data breach laws
This article talks about the following: The systems of Equifax, one of the largest credit reporting agencies in the world, was hacked recently and seems it took 6 weeks for the company to let its 143 million customers know about it. This is a huge time in letting its customers know of the risk and the company has been shamed for focusing more on its bottom line rather than on the safety of its customers. To prevent customer grievance, the company offered free credit monitoring and identity theft protection to its customers. While it is known that reporting should be done only after careful examination of the attack and its impact, but 6 weeks is a total collapse of the system and deviation from industry standards.
It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the future. Will offering free credit monitoring systems save the company from the delay in reporting the risk to its customers? How soon can the company take measures to mitigate the attack and install anti-theft systems for any attacks in the future? What is the damage done or will be done with the data hacked? These are questions that need answers to quickly.
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