{"id":134918,"date":"2017-10-04T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T16:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=134918"},"modified":"2017-10-05T07:52:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T13:52:29","slug":"irs-hired-equifax-help-verify-identity-yes-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/04\/irs-hired-equifax-help-verify-identity-yes-really.html","title":{"rendered":"The IRS has hired Equifax to help verify your identity. Yes, really"},"content":{"rendered":"

Equifax’s CEO was just before congress testifying how the company’s ineptness allowed a prolonged series of hacks to unveil the names, SSNs, DoBs, and other key identifying data of 150 million Americans (and some Canadians and Brits). That data could be invaluable in, among other things, tax fraud.<\/p>\n

Which is why it makes perfect sense<\/i> for the IRS to award a no-bid, single-source contract to Equifax for over $7 million to help them “verify taxpayer identity” to combat, of course, tax fraud.<\/p>\n

Nice work, if you can get it.<\/p>\n

The IRS contract award<\/a>\u00a0— which was made weeks after news of the breach was made public (which was, in turn, months after the breach had been detected by Equifax and that months after the first hacks actually occurred) — at least partially clarifies the rationale for what seems an extremely goofy thing to do. Equifax is the only company that can do what the IRS wants (it says), and the functionality is critical for the agency (well, duh, yeah, with all those SSNs out the in the wild …). The IRS also says<\/a> that Equifax has already been doing this service for them, that none of the data the hackers broke into was their<\/i> data, and that they haven’t seen any tax fraud from the hacking (yet).<\/p>\n

Apparently various Congressfolk are just as confused about the IRS doing this as, well, I am<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) separately penned letters to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen demanding he explain the agency’s rationale for awarding the contract to Equifax and provide information on any alternatives the agency considered. “I was initially under the impression that my staff was sharing a copy of the Onion, until I realized this story was, in fact, true,” Blumenauer wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suspect the eventual answer from the IRS will be, “Um, there really is nobody else who can or will do this for us, so we’re stuck with them.” Which always seems to be the lament of companies everywhere who thought that outsourcing was a great idea …<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nIRS awards Equifax no-bid, $7.25 million contract after hack<\/a><\/span>
\n“This is considered a critical service that cannot lapse.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Equifax’s CEO was just before congress testifying how the company’s ineptness allowed a prolonged series of hacks to unveil the names, SSNs, DoBs, and other key identifying data of 150 million Americans (and some Canadians and Brits). That data could be invaluable in, among other things, tax fraud. Which is why it makes perfect sense … Continue reading “The IRS has hired Equifax to help verify your identity. Yes, really”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,375,374,132,376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-computer-security","category-money-politics","category-privacy","category-taxing-spending"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Equifax+HQ.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134597,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/07\/basically-consider-worst-personal-identity-data-breach-ever.html","url_meta":{"origin":134918,"position":0},"title":"So basically consider this the worst personal identity data breach ever","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Sep-17 6:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Equifax is one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, with oodles of information about every American consumer and their finances. And they got hacked, and about 143 million people's data -- addresses, SSNs, birth dates, even drivers license numbers -- are in the wild. They have a page\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136310,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/08\/so-last-years-equifax-breach-was-even-more-awful-than-previously-revealed.html","url_meta":{"origin":134918,"position":1},"title":"So last year’s Equifax breach was even more awful than previously revealed","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-May-18 6:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Largely because Equifax didn't reveal a lot of the details because state laws didn't require them to. A certain amount of the data stolen for millions (tens of millions, hundreds of millions) of Americans is of vague concern because it's private information that is now presumably available to any black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Equifax%2BHQ.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134736,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/18\/social-security-numbers-broken-alternative.html","url_meta":{"origin":134918,"position":2},"title":"Social Security Numbers are broken. What is the alternative?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Sep-17 11:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"We are increasingly a data-driven world. There are electronic records about us everywhere, and we rely on them in a thousand different ways to identify us. But anyone who's ever worked with a system that tries to reliably and consistently identify people knows that it's a problem. What identifier is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Equifax-HQ.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134808,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/21\/equifax-breach-round.html","url_meta":{"origin":134918,"position":3},"title":"My Equifax Breach Round-Up","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Sep-17 8:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"The news cycle on all of this has settled down finally, so I feel like I can determine some coherent recommendations of what to do. That's different from what we need to do nationally (stop treating the SSN as a secret password and unique identifier, for one), but that's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Equifax%2BHQ.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134647,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/11\/the-equifax-debacle.html","url_meta":{"origin":134918,"position":4},"title":"The Equifax Debacle","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Sep-17 11:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, pretty much this. I'm following along the news as the best \"next\" steps to take as a consumer. Things continue to change so fast in terms of (a) things Equifax is doing and (b) ways Equifax is being criticized for stuff they are doing, that taking any steps for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/equifax-comic.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132507,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/05\/if-you-cant-trust-a-credit-reporting-agency-who-can-you-trust.html","url_meta":{"origin":134918,"position":5},"title":"If you can't trust a credit reporting agency, who can you trust?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Jan-17 2:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, apparently, nobody.'[O]n Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that two of the three major credit-reporting agencies responsible for doling out those scores\u2014Equifax and Transunion\u2014have been deceiving and taking advantage of Americans. The Bureau ordered the agencies to pay more than $23 million in fines and restitution. In their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134931,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134918\/revisions\/134931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}