Warren Slams Equifax in 15 Page Report Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 9:51 AM

Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren claims that Equifax's cybersecurity regime was grossly inadequate and that it misled the public about the removal of data from its systems during a hack last summer.  Those statements were in a 5-page report Warren released on Wednesday as part of an effort to gain backing for legislation to rein in credit bureaus. The report claims that hackers removed, rather than simply accessing, the Social Security numbers, addresses and birth dates of 145 million consumers.

The report also alleges that passport numbers were stolen in the data breach, but Equifax denies that. The company was also harshly criticized for waiting 40 days before notifying consumers and regulators about the data breach, which occurred on May 13, 2017, but wasn't reported until September 7th.

Warren also claims that Equifax protested the IRS awarding a contract to rival credit bureau  Experian, after the data breach was disclosed. By doing so, Equifax set in motion a 100-day delay forcing the IRS to agree to a $7.2 million "bridge" contract with Equifax.

Read the entire article on CU Today.