Politics

Hacked Again: Equifax Shares Drop After Possible New Breach

In a yet another odd turn of events for the IRS, consumer data corporation Equifax hinted that it may have just been hacked for the third time this year.

Late yesterday the company took down its website out of an ‘abundance of caution’.

But anyone who knows anything about technology knows taking down a site won’t do much to stop a hacking that has already occurred.

Any ‘abundance of caution’ might have been more appropriate after the first or certainly after the second hacking incident.

This is significant, as you’ll recall because the IRS has awarded Equifax with an eight-figure contract to help the agency with consumers’ tax information.

Um, call us crazy, but there might be a good reason to rethink that decision.

Here’s more from CNBC…

Equifax shares dropped as much as 3.5 percent Thursday after it said it has disabled one of its customer help online pages and is investigating another possible cyberbreach.

The consumer credit reporting company said its security teams are looking into another possible breach barely one month after it disclosed a hack that left exposed the personal information of 145.5 million people.

Shares of Equifax were down about 1.7 percent at around 1:55 p.m. ET.

The company said the problem is in its credit report assistance link on its website. “We are aware of the situation,” a spokesman said. “Our IT and Security teams are looking into this matter, and out of an abundance of caution have temporarily taken this page offline.”

Earlier this month, Equifax said its outside security consultant had concluded an investigation into the breach, which it first detected in July. It identified more than 2 million more people were affected than originally estimated. The hack has led to multiple federal and state investigations and the departure of the company’s 12-year chief executive.

The company has said that it was warned to be prepared for further cyber attacks once word of the giant breach got out.

An independent security analyst told the website Ars Technica that he noticed the latest problem when he went to Equifax’s site on Wednesday and found out visitors were redirected to download a fraudulent software update.

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