The United States Senate has been looking into last year’s breach at credit rating agency Equifax. They’ve sent a letter to Equifax’s interim CEO, Paulino de Rego Barros Jr, saying the company provided the Congress with misleading, incomplete or contradictory information. Among the Senate’s accusation are the allegation that the scope of the breach was understated, the breach was the result of a series of failures and that the aftermath was botched.
The Equifax data breach, in which 143 million accounts were compromised and which might have years-long consequences for consumers, was historic in its scope and potential for damage. But it's also notable for how extraordinarily badly the company, at least from a public-relations standpoint, handled the fallout.
By now, you'll have heard about the breach at Equifax, leading to the leaking for PII relating to about 143 million people in the US, Canada and the UK. While it's unlikely many Australians were directly affected, the nature of the breach highlights why mandatory data breach notification laws are important, that notification periods are critical and you need to ensure you're ready to communicate with anyone whose data your store.
