3 ms·

Didn't Equifax receive practically no penalty for it though? So, what would be the motivation to avoid future things like this happening again?

smegsicle 3y ago
make sure to become too big to fail before you fail
RachelF 3y ago
A tiny penalty. The CIO got a $3M bonus, too. Odd thing is that she had a music degree and little experience in IT, but was an old friend of the board members.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
  Not enough downvotes for this. I'm assuming this is all BS considering you got all the details wrong. It was the CEO who got a $3 million bonus in 2016, not the CIO. Susan Mauldin, who earned a music degree in college, was the Equifax CISO, not their CIO. The reason I'm so salty about your response is when the breach happened, there were tons of news reports denigrating the CISO because she had a music degree. There may be a ton of reasons she wasn't good at her job (though it's hard to say as CISO is often a "sacrificial lamb" job anyway), and I'm certainly not defending Equifax, but I take major issue with the implication that a music degree makes someone unqualified for a tech job. First, as she was CISO, she was presumably done with college many, many years ago. Lots of people have college degrees that aren't necessarily directed to the career they end up in. More importantly, though, I've found that there is a direct correlation between highly trained musicians and great software engineers. I don't know if it's a "same part of the brain" thing or whatever, but I'm actually astounded at the sheer number of "best of the best" software engineers I've worked with that are classically trained musicians. It's to the point that when hiring I give "extra points" if you will to musicians because, it my experience at least, the correlation is so strong. So, frankly, you can take your "she had a music degree" shade and shove it.
  - jiggawatts 3y ago
    I've worked with several senior people ("Principal Enterprise Architect", etc...) who were music majors, and as a rule they were terrible at their jobs. They just... didn't care about anything even vaguely related to computers. Without exception they got into their positions through nepotism, ass-kissing, or dirty politics. None got there through talent. People who like computers do it as a hobby. They learn programming at a young age, they get a CS degree or a hard science degree, and then they spend their spare time on tech forums like HN. People who don't like computers play music, learn painting, or do something else. They get degrees in the arts or humanities. They spend their spare time playing music at the local pub, or whatever. PS: One of the worst programmers I had ever met is also one of the best musicians I had ever met.
    - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
      Sorry you had that experience, but that certainly wasn't mine. Don't want to reveal too much but some very high level people in the tech world that you've probably heard of (or at least heard of their companies) have strong musical backgrounds.
      - jiggawatts 3y ago
        Very high level people in the tech world are often politicians, climbing the ladder through their social skills. I've observed an inverse relationship between technical skill and career progression in all technical industries. It's always the pimply junior contractor tech who is the Global Administrator doing the actual work, and the "very high level people" struggle with copy-paste from one email to another.
    - stef25 3y ago
      > People who like computers do it as a hobby. They learn programming at a young age, they get a CS degree or a hard science degree, and then they spend their spare time on tech forums like HN. Well that's me and trust me, you don't want me in charge of any IT department. Maybe it's cause I also like music.
    - 3y ago
Mistletoe 3y ago
I can’t remember what I got but yes it amounted to nothing. Free credit monitoring that had a million upsells and dark patterns meant to make them more money. That’s my recollection but it’s all fuzzy because we’ve all been breached so many times.
dwd 3y ago
You should read the approved judgements with the various State AGs that outline the measures, Government oversight and reporting Equifax is still required to do to prevent a future occurrence. Should it happen again then you would very likely hear for calls for Gov to step in and take direct control of the firm.
- caconym_ 3y ago
  > Should it happen again then you would very likely hear for calls for Gov to step in and take direct control of the firm. We heard calls for similar last time, but I don't think anybody expected the legal/regulatory response to be anything resembling an existential threat to Equifax, and it wasn't. I don't see why the second time would be any different—we are surrounded by examples of how our dogshit government is utterly derelict in its duty to protect workers and consumers, and arguably complicit across the vast scope of corporate abuse of the same.
  - dwd 3y ago
    When anyone talks about Equifax's "customers" that means Government at all levels along with every corporate who isn't using a competitor. I would think a takeover similar to what happened with Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac could happen as much to maintain Equifax as a going concern and protect the credit markets than an actual penalty. Consumers still get screwed.
- justinclift 3y ago
  So, treated the same way as banks after the GFC then, but without needing to give them money as well?
  - dwd 3y ago
    Could you imagine how well bailing out Equifax to pay its legal bills would go down?
    - iinnPP 3y ago

smegsicle 3y ago

make sure to become too big to fail before you fail

RachelF 3y ago

A tiny penalty. The CIO got a $3M bonus, too. Odd thing is that she had a music degree and little experience in IT, but was an old friend of the board members.

hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
Not enough downvotes for this. I'm assuming this is all BS considering you got all the details wrong. It was the CEO who got a $3 million bonus in 2016, not the CIO. Susan Mauldin, who earned a music degree in college, was the Equifax CISO, not their CIO. The reason I'm so salty about your response is when the breach happened, there were tons of news reports denigrating the CISO because she had a music degree. There may be a ton of reasons she wasn't good at her job (though it's hard to say as CISO is often a "sacrificial lamb" job anyway), and I'm certainly not defending Equifax, but I take major issue with the implication that a music degree makes someone unqualified for a tech job. First, as she was CISO, she was presumably done with college many, many years ago. Lots of people have college degrees that aren't necessarily directed to the career they end up in. More importantly, though, I've found that there is a direct correlation between highly trained musicians and great software engineers. I don't know if it's a "same part of the brain" thing or whatever, but I'm actually astounded at the sheer number of "best of the best" software engineers I've worked with that are classically trained musicians. It's to the point that when hiring I give "extra points" if you will to musicians because, it my experience at least, the correlation is so strong. So, frankly, you can take your "she had a music degree" shade and shove it.
- jiggawatts 3y ago
  I've worked with several senior people ("Principal Enterprise Architect", etc...) who were music majors, and as a rule they were terrible at their jobs. They just... didn't care about anything even vaguely related to computers. Without exception they got into their positions through nepotism, ass-kissing, or dirty politics. None got there through talent. People who like computers do it as a hobby. They learn programming at a young age, they get a CS degree or a hard science degree, and then they spend their spare time on tech forums like HN. People who don't like computers play music, learn painting, or do something else. They get degrees in the arts or humanities. They spend their spare time playing music at the local pub, or whatever. PS: One of the worst programmers I had ever met is also one of the best musicians I had ever met.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    Sorry you had that experience, but that certainly wasn't mine. Don't want to reveal too much but some very high level people in the tech world that you've probably heard of (or at least heard of their companies) have strong musical backgrounds.
    - jiggawatts 3y ago
      Very high level people in the tech world are often politicians, climbing the ladder through their social skills. I've observed an inverse relationship between technical skill and career progression in all technical industries. It's always the pimply junior contractor tech who is the Global Administrator doing the actual work, and the "very high level people" struggle with copy-paste from one email to another.
  - stef25 3y ago
    > People who like computers do it as a hobby. They learn programming at a young age, they get a CS degree or a hard science degree, and then they spend their spare time on tech forums like HN. Well that's me and trust me, you don't want me in charge of any IT department. Maybe it's cause I also like music.
  - 3y ago

Mistletoe 3y ago

I can’t remember what I got but yes it amounted to nothing. Free credit monitoring that had a million upsells and dark patterns meant to make them more money. That’s my recollection but it’s all fuzzy because we’ve all been breached so many times.

dwd 3y ago

You should read the approved judgements with the various State AGs that outline the measures, Government oversight and reporting Equifax is still required to do to prevent a future occurrence. Should it happen again then you would very likely hear for calls for Gov to step in and take direct control of the firm.

caconym_ 3y ago
> Should it happen again then you would very likely hear for calls for Gov to step in and take direct control of the firm. We heard calls for similar last time, but I don't think anybody expected the legal/regulatory response to be anything resembling an existential threat to Equifax, and it wasn't. I don't see why the second time would be any different—we are surrounded by examples of how our dogshit government is utterly derelict in its duty to protect workers and consumers, and arguably complicit across the vast scope of corporate abuse of the same.
- dwd 3y ago
  When anyone talks about Equifax's "customers" that means Government at all levels along with every corporate who isn't using a competitor. I would think a takeover similar to what happened with Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac could happen as much to maintain Equifax as a going concern and protect the credit markets than an actual penalty. Consumers still get screwed.
justinclift 3y ago
So, treated the same way as banks after the GFC then, but without needing to give them money as well?
- dwd 3y ago
  Could you imagine how well bailing out Equifax to pay its legal bills would go down?
  - iinnPP 3y ago