After recently admitting to having the sensitive information of 143 million people stolen from it’s data centre, Equifax was awarded a new $7.2 million contract on behalf of the Internal Revenue Agency.
Announced Oct, 3, to the ire of U.S senators, the credit-moniting company was awarded the contract because the IRS deems them “a critical service that cannot lapse.” Equifax has been tasked with verifying the identification of taxpayers and is considered the “sole source order,” for the contract.
Effectively, the the sole source order implies that Equifax is the only company able to fulfill the requirements stated within the initial contract posting.
At his hearing with Senate Banking Committee last Wednesday former CEO Richard Smith was slammed over the new contract, with various democrats and republican senators voicing their dismay about the entire situation.
“You realize to many Americans right now, that looks like we’re giving Lindsay Lohan the key to the minibar,” Senator John Kennedy of Arizona said.
Sen. Heidi keitkamp from North Dakota said that Equifax needs to seriously consider backing away from this IRS contract and instead, focusing on how such a massive breach won’t happen again.
Despite the new contract, Equifax still finds itself in hot water, with Massachusetts deciding to file a lawsuit last month.
Read the full story at arstechnica and CNN Money
