US FTC Publicly Confirms Equifax Investigation, Revealing Just How Horrific This Breach Is

US FTC Publicly Confirms Equifax Investigation, Revealing Just How Horrific This Breach Is

Thanks to intense public outcry in the US, the Federal Trade Commission has confirmed that it is investigating Equifax’s vast array of screw-ups surrounding the security breach that compromised the personal data of an estimated 143 million Americans.

Image: AP

The public announcement demonstrates just how alarming this breach is. “The FTC typically does not comment on ongoing investigations. However, in light of the intense public interest and the potential impact of this matter, I can confirm that FTC staff is investigating the Equifax data breach,” said spokesperson Peter Kaplan, in an statement shared with multiple news outlets on Thursday morning.

Equifax did not immediately respond to a Gizmodo request for comment.

The announcement comes several hours after Equifax said the breach was possible because of an Apache Struts vulnerability, which, as Ars Technica pointed out, could have been easily fixed with an update.

On Wednesday, Senator Mark Warner called on the FTC to investigate Equifax. Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee requested information on the vulnerability and a detailed timeline of the breach, which will help determine whether three Equifax senior executives knew about the hack when they sold about $US1.8 ($2) million in company shares. The company claims the managers had no knowledge of the incident when they sold the stock.

[Reuters]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.