Is Equifax actually liable or responsible for anything? No jail time or other penalties for executives. Okay so how are they held accountable?
Their head of security, Susan Mauldin, had zero security or computer skills - she was a music teacher.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/equifax-ceo-hired-a-music-...
Anyway, the last line of the article sums it up well: "Everything about this fiasco just gets more and more surreal."
There's a sense in which they have control of entire industry sectors, some higher learning or extended experience should really be required.
To an extent, yes, but much more so now than in the past few decades. In the past, those who were senior exectives responsible for technical aspects of the company would usually be very strong technically, having worked their way up from more junior positions and gaining management training along the way.
The question is what was her experience prior to being promoted? I have not kept track of this "scandal" since it started, but someone's education should not be a major factor.
All that said, she was pretty bad at her job.
I agree this is the real question. If someone doesn't have a related degree, but has the experience, that's one thing, however I've seen a handful of examples where someone with both and unrelated degree and barely, if any, relevant experience get high up technical positions (I assume mostly because of knowing the right people in a company where tech is a cost center)
On the other hand, this settlement shouldn't have been capped at such a ridiculously low amount.
...and leaking information about every working age adult in the US.
And having a music major as chief security officer.
And having sensitive data stored as plaintext.
Their entire business is about managing information. They failed to do the only thing they are supposed to do.
No, it's not. If you collect personal information of almost 150 million people, you have to take measures to protect that data.
If you fail to do that, you can't just say "oops, I didn't mean that"...
If this was the US Airforce who lost an armed nuclear ICBM the commanding officer who was ok with this ”whoopsie” would have to explain him or herself to quite a few officials.
I disagree. I think it means they owe a hundred million people (a) an offer to opt-in to their service and (b) a share of their profits for doing so.
It’s not “some employee”. It’s an entire management hierarchy that failed to prioritise and budget for and create a culture around security best practices.
https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2...