Corporate Citizenship: Equifax's Three Amigos

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

It's been a real drag learning that I was one of the estimated 140 million Americans whose personal information was "compromised" in the Equifax data hack that was revealed two weeks ago.

To be honest I still don't exactly know what "compromised" even means in terms of who actually stole my data, where it's being stored and what, if anything, the hackers who stole it intend to do with it.

After reading about what is now considered one of the largest data breaches in history, I went to the Equifax Website to enter my name and six digits of my Social Security number and quickly learned my information was part of that gargantuan cybertheft.

Like I didn't have enough on my plate to begin with - the Equifax Website said they would mail me details about my compromised data but I still haven't gotten it.

I wonder if any of the three senior Equifax executives (including the chief financial officer John Gamble) who collectively sold off about $2 million of their company stock just before announcing the data breach, had their personal data stolen?

Somehow I doubt it, but you never know, there may be justice in the world.

As Vox reported on Monday investigations into the remarkably-timed stock sale and data breach have been announced by the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and various Congressional committees.

Now I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for the conservatively-tilted federal government to use it's power to slap down any corporation, let alone Equifax, an Atlanta-based company with 9,500 employees that "collects and aggregates information on over 800 million individual consumers and more than 88 million companies worldwide" according to their Website.

Got Equifax stock? Joe Loughran, Rodolfo Ploder
and John Gamble certainly don't

Want a good chuckle? Check out the Equifax page on Corporate Citizenship.

Instead of a photo of CEO Rick Smith, they ought to have a photo of those three shysters who dumped their stock before revealing that the personal data of almost half of the U.S. population was swiped; CFO John Gamble, president of U.S. information Joseph M. Loughran III and president of workforce solutions Rodolfo O. Ploder.

Oh and the stock price has tanked by about 35% since the announcement on September 8th of a massive data breach they all knew about back in July - so the three amigos collectively saved themselves about $700,000.

Would you believe that Equifax has five different presidents in their corporate leadership?

That's a lot of presidents for such an appalling lack of oversight, ethics and accountability.

Lest we forget, remember when Senator Ted Cruz and Representative John Ratcliffe (both Texas Republicans) introduced legislation that would eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau back in February?

With over $3 billion in revenue in 2016 and their brand and reputation rapidly sinking into the shitter, my guess is that Equifax has already dispatched lobbyists up to Capitol Hill to get their meathooks into members of Congress before the villagers begin storming the castle with torches and pitchforks.

Anyway, let's hope the wheels of justice turn more positively for the 140 millions Americans who've been affected by the Equifax data breach than they did for Anthony Lamar Smith in St. Louis.

Well that's all I have time for tonight, I have to get back to trying to initiate a credit freeze on the Equifax Website.

Wish that was as easy as dumping Equifax stock.