all hideouts with equifax -- all high-ups with equifax. they sold stock in the amount of $1.8 million. they had to get an ok from john kelly before they did that, is that correct? and apparently they did get the ok? mr. smith: yes, that is my understanding. rep. cardenas: and you are ceo at the time they sold that stock? mr. smith: i have no -- rep. cardenas: i get it, but you were ceo at the time. what i would like to request of you mr. chairman, and managing member, that we ask for a specific hearing where we get then andy, who was is still currently legal officer. hopefully he will still have that title when we get him here. i am disturbed that congress is holding a hearing and that equifax has before us someone who no longer works for them. i hope we can have that hearing where we have chief legal officer john kelly before us. rep. latta: the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. ry family watches over their financial data with great concern. it impacts their daily life. whether it is

around that same time, three equifax executives sold over $1 million of equifax stock. that's on august 1st and august 2nd. and it's reported that mr. kelly was ultimately responsible for approving those sales. is it true that mr. kelly, or one of his direct reports, would have been required to sign off on the stock sales? >> yes. mr. kelly, who is our general counsel, owns the clearance process -- >> i have a lot of questions. so the answer is yes. he had to -- he was supposed to sign off. >> yes. >> did anyone of these three stu executives have knowledge the cyber security incident had occurred. >> to the best of my knowledge, no. >> when were they informed that the incident had occurred? >> i don't know exactly the date that they were informed, but they were not -- best of my knowledge they had no knowledge at the time they cleared their trades with general counsel. >> do you know for sure that they didn't know? >> to the best of my knowledge they did not know. >> and mr. kelly, who we were told knew of the breach and that it contained personal information and yet st

equifax, equifax doesn't get its data directly from consumers, as you know. and as several on this committee point out, it gets it from their banks, their utility companies, their employers, all without consent of the borrowers and the employees. congress long ago, as i think you know, decided that companies could not traffic in people's medical records, for obvious and good reason. and that they needed to consent to a transfer. why shouldn't we do the same with financial records? you know how important that personal financial data is to. why not do the same with financial records? do you think we need to change the consumer reporting industry in this country to give americans ownership of the data? for example, should they be allowed to request that you delete the data from your systems? >> senator, two thoughts. one is, we're a vital part to the global economy. we provide a great service to the consumer. and enable them to get access to credit. we also enable the unbanked, because of our data, to have the opportunity to get into the credit market, so there'

equifax is offering a one-year membership to an equifax subsidiary. seems like a twisted marketing campaign to me he said. home point financial claims to have lost social security numbers, birth dates, drivers license numbers. many cannot be changed. what good is a one-year membership? this got is lost and available till i pass away. is it ethical that a company that loses my personal data also conveniently owns a service to help me protect it from its eventual use? it's time all these companies are forced to offer lifetime memberships. please help all of us. this is out of control. many other constituents again concerned talked with parents of young people whose information has been compromised. mr. smith, when this committee sends questions for the record of which there will be many, will the response to our questions come from you or from equifax? >> they'll come from the company, congressman. >> and how should we respond in getting those answer from equifax? >> i'll make sure someone from the company reaches out to your staff. >> that would be gre

equifax coming up on c-span, former equifax richard smith testifying. and later, defense secretary on u.s. operations in afghanistan and asia. the former ceo and share of appeared before the congressional committee. this portion of the hearing is 40 minutes. >> the committee will come to order. the chair is authorized to declare a risk -- a recess at any time. entitledng is examining the equifax breach. september 7, equifax announced what it called a cyber security incident. 145 million u.s. consumers, nearly half of all americans. if you are hearing my voice your either the victim of the breach or know someone who is. that's how massive this was. criminals got everything they need to steal your identity, open credit card accounts in -- thise and cause you may be the most harmful the world has ever seen. the company's response has left much to be desired. equifax failed to disclose the breach to shareholders for weeks. senior executives sold their equifax shares after the company knew of the breach but before they disclosed the breach. the federal trade

equifax breach. september 7, equifax announced what it called a cyber security incident. 145 million u.s. consumers, nearly half of all americans. if you are hearing my voice your either the victim of the breach or know someone who is. that's how massive this was. criminals got everything they need to steal your identity, open credit card accounts in -- thise and cause you may be the most harmful the world has ever seen. the company's response has left much to be desired. equifax failed to disclose the breach to shareholders for weeks. senior executives sold their equifax shares after the company knew of the breach but before they disclosed the breach. the federal trade commission will get to the -- the justice department will get to the bottom of this. by the federal trade commission is required. congress must insure federal regulators do their jobs so justice can be served. we must examine if our agencies and fair credit reporting act are up to the job. large-scale security breaches are becoming co

as the representative of equifax to come represent equifax before this committee? >> i believe i was asked specifically to come before the committee. >> by equifax or the committee? >> my understanding is by the committee. >> okay, apparently the committee asked for the ceo at the time and at that time you were still the ceo? but you're no longer the ceo. did you inquire as to why the current ceo or interim ceo didn't come before in committee? >> i do not, but i felt personally it was my obligation. the breach occurred under my watch. as i said in my within testimony and my oral testimony i ultimately take that responsibility so i thought it was important that i be here. >> that you can. i get the picture. on august 31 -- excuse me, on july 31 you were notified of the suspicious activity that eventually as we now know was 145 million person breach? was it july 31 was it? >> yes, congressman, it was a brief interaction. >> a verbal interaction. >> yes. >> and then you just referenced as an answer to another one of my colleague's questions, on august 31 you received

hackers were able to access the equifax database through a software vulnerability that equifax failed to resolve, despite having been alluded to the vulnerability and its potential for commercial explication by dhs. the hackers continuously attacked equifax's systems, iod of aed for a per performance. by the time equifax took any steps to stop the attacks, 145 million americans' personal identifying information had been stolen, including the date of nearly 3 million americans -- i'm sorry, 3 million arizonans. we will further ask what did equifax due to prioritize the security of consumer data. we will here today from rick smith, former chairman and ceo .f equifax i will let mr. smith described the remaining details of the bridge in his testimony. the details are important. we must examine them if we are going to learn from this incident. i'm also pleased to welcome to the committee jamie winterton from arizona state university and tyler moore from the university of tulsa, who will be on the second panel. it is my hope that this hearing provide answers to the subcommittee's questions

before joining equifax, mr. smith held various management positions at general electric, where he worked for 22 years. without objection, the witness's written statement will be made part of the record. mr. smith, you are now recognized for five minutes to give an oral presentation of your testimony. thank you. >> thank you. thank you, chairman hensarling, ranking member waters and the honorable members of the committee. thank you for allowing me to come before you today to testify. again, i am rick smith. and for the past 12 years, i have had the honor of serving as chairman and ceo of equifax. over the past month or so, i've had the opportunity to talk to many american consumers and read their letters. those impacted and not impacted alike and understand their anger and frustration that we have caused at equifax. this criminal attack on our data occurred on my watch. and i take full responsibility for that attack as the ceo. i want every american and everyone here to understand that i am deeply apologetic and

equifax soughtat information on bankruptcy protection for equifax? >> not that i'm aware of. >> the chair recognized the gentleman from maine. >> thank you for being here. i know you have been on the hill quite some time. a lot of these questions have been asked before. but you know, this is so important because it goes central to our economy. it really does. here we are on a progrowth agenda, we want to have lower taxes and you are regulations and trade in energy prices that are stable. then this happens. i know you folks got hacked. and i know you are doing the best you can with it. but, you know, the result of this might not be felt for quite some time. think about this, a third of our country, 40% of our country, i don't know, 60% of adults. 145 million people. 145 million. criminals now have the social security numbers, addresses, birth dates. when my mom was 89, had to sign her up for medicare. you need her social security number. this is serious stuff. i accept your apology, i hope he american people do, i don't know if they will. we have 1.3

equifax soughtat information on bankruptcy protection for equifax? >> not that i'm aware of. >> the chair recognized the gentleman from maine. >> thank you for being here. i know you have been on the hill quite some time. a lot of these questions have been asked before. but you know, this is so important because it goes central to our economy. it really does. here we are on a progrowth agenda, we want to have lower taxes and you are regulations and trade in energy prices that are stable. then this happens. i know you folks got hacked. and i know you are doing the best you can with it. but, you know, the result of this might not be felt for quite some time. think about this, a third of our country, 40% of our country, i don't know, 60% of adults. 145 million people. 145 million. criminals now have the social security numbers, addresses, birth dates. when my mom was 89, had to sign her up for medicare. you need her social security number. this is serious stuff. i accept your apology, i hope he american people do, i don't know if they will. we have 1.3

and the equifax breach. i want to focus on the broader issue as we conclude. in my initial questioning to you, i talked to you about whether any experian data went to other entities. i was referring to governmental entities, the cfpb, the federal reserve, we had a discussion about the irs. and there are contractual relationships, i understand, with the use of this data. and let me just talk about the cfpb as an example. in september of 2014, the gao did a report which i request for on cfpb data collection. they found that cfpb at that time, that's three years ago now, had access to account level credit card data on between 546 to 596 million consumer accounts on a monthly basis. representing 87% of the credit card market. gao also found that at that time there was not adequate protection at the cfpb of this data that they were collecting. in this report, it indicated, again, this was in 2014, all of the sources of data that the cfpb was collecting, and experian shows up in that report, 700,000 vehicles per m

since you are the ceo in 2014, you are familiar with miller versus equifax. you have heard of that case i am sure. mr. smith: vaguely. that is a case where a judge found -- congratulations on that case because that case was determined that you did not have to pay an $18 million penalty. we had to pay a 1.5 million dollars penalty because that is the most the constitution youred in the judge found actions were reprehensible. her words, not mine read it is stated clearly your own experts testified it is equifax's policy to investigate and correct files filed,ter a lawsuit is which is why i wanted to talk to somebody in the company to see if they are willing to change that. since there is no one here i guess not. i just wondered, you thought that was ok? apparently you thought i was a good policy in 2014. mr. smith: if a consumer has a dispute on his or her credit file we take it seriously. toy have the ability communicate with us directly. we work with the banks -- ignoredis case you just it and didn't do anything about it. the only reason there was a lawsuit w

equifax -- as staggering as this is, equifax is actually making money off the breach so while 145 million americans around this country will have to worry about identity theft for the rest of their lives, their social security numbers will be out there, their pert days will be out there, their phone numbers will be out there, their home addresses will be out there, what equifax is doing is actually making money. they sell a product that they have offered for one year for free but after that, it has to be renewed. if just one in seven of the people who have taken up the offer for free protection renew for just one year, that's $200 million more for equifax when you look at other companies that are offering credit protection services, it turns out they do through equifax. so every time someone goes to life lock, equifax is making some money off that and equifax sells information to both businesses and to the government to deal with identity theft. since identity theft is more likely right now, equifax makes more money that is a company that is broken that is a market that is broken. >> ther

rick smith is the former chairman and ceo of equifax. before joining equifax, mr. smith spent 2 years at general electric and in top positions in the company's insurance, leading, and asset management departments. your testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. i ask that you'd summarize your testimony in five minutes or less. please proceed. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman, mr. chairman flake, ranking member franken, and the honorable members of the subcommittee. thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. as the chairman mentioned my name is rick smith and for the past 12 years i've had the honor to be the chairman and ceo of equifax. i've submitted written testimony earlier, which goes into much greater detail than i will today. i look forward to answering any questions that you may have. as you might guess over the past month or so i've talked to many consumers and read their letters, and i understand how frustrated and fearful many americans are about the breach that happened at equifax. this is my third hearing in two days

former equifax ceo, richard smith, noted that while some of equifax's databases are encrypted at rest, the disputed portal that was compromised was not. questions remain about the best ways to protect sensitive data. including are there data security industry standards and best practices at credit bureaus. should tools like encryption at rest be employed to protect all data containing sensitive consumer information. what role do financial institutions and federal agencies play in data security at credit bureaus? given the credit bureaus are financial institutions under the gramm-leach-bliley act, how does data security, testing and oversight by regulators compare to that of traditional financial institutions? i look forward to hearing from our witnesses about what credit bureaus do to ensure security for the data they collect. who oversees credit bureaus to ensure they have adequate security measures in place? and what improvements could be made to the oversight of data security at the credit bureaus? there are also many concerns regarding company response to data breaches. the equifa

smith's former chairman and ceo of equifax. your written statement will be made a part of the record in its entirety and you may proceed to hear oral remarks. >> good morning. honorable members of the committee think for the opportunity to testify for the last 12 years and had the honor of serving as chairman and ceo of equifax i submitted written testimony which addresses the details of my testimony in far more detail. many consumers have read their letter says understand how frustrated and fearful americans are this criminal attack took place on my watch and i take full responsibility as ceo of the time and i am truly and deeply sorry for what happened. americans have a right to know how this happened the what i did about by incident and what they know what i have learned to as a result of being briefed from the company's investigation which is ongoing. as we now know the criminal attack was made possible from human error and technological error involving a failure to apply a patch in march 2017. technological was a scanner t

former equifax ceo richard smith noted that while some of equifax 's databases are encrypted at rest, the disputed portal that was compromise was not. questions remain about the best ways to protect sensitive data, including are their data security industry standards and best practices that credit bureaus? encryptions like addressed the employed to protect all data. what role do financial institutions and federal agencies play in data security at credit bureaus? given that credit bureaus are financial institutions, how does data security, testing, and oversight by regulators compared to that of traditional financial institutions? i look forward to hearing from our witnesses about what credit bureaus due to ensure security for the data they collect. who oversees credit bureaus to see the have adequate security measures in place? what improvements could be made to the oversight of data security of the credit bureaus? there are many concerns regarding company response to data breaches. the equifax breach has left more than 145 million consumers confused as to what can be done to mitigate

equifax, experian and transunion. you've asked us to discuss how credit burrows protect consumer data, but first i wanted to mention the important role played by the national reporting system and our economy. more than two thifrds our gdp comes from consumer spending fueled by consumer credit. it's the national credit reporting system that allows consumers to quickly and effortlessly open a bank account or purchase a cell phone. more than 40% of consumers move every year. and the national credit reporting system facilitates this nobmoekt. in addition to providing fast, fair, impartial access to well priced car, amt apartment rental and other services. nearly 15 years ago congress enacted the fair employment acts to protect consumer privacy and to foster the continued development and vi taltd of the national credit reporting system. the most recent revision to this comprehensive regulatory scheme was the cfpb as a supervisory agency. this was not just examining credit bureaus but examining the users of credit reports a

first question about equifax. the former chief is defending the actions of aqua fact after the breach and before it was made public. does equifax as a company survive? >> it will be tough for them to survive in their current form. if he is arguing they handled it well, he has got a very steep road. we are on this conversation three or four weeks ago, this company was hacked in may, they found out in july. the public found out in september. that cadence is all wrong. the way they responded you don't judge a company just by the fact that hurricane occurred. you judge the ceo, how do they perform once they knew about the hurricane, when did they tell the fbi, and regulators and shareholders? late, late, later. the fact that a couple executives stalled stock during this period, who is minding the store? nobody sells a share, we have a problem going on, don't you dare sell a share. how could they have done that? stuart: they are in deep trouble. >> economic malpractice. stuart: karl rove is with us, good to have you ba

as the representative of equifax to come represent equifax before this committee >> i believe i was asked specifically to come before the committee. >> by equifax or the committee >> my understanding is by the committee. >> okay. apparently the committee asked for the ceo at the time, and at that time you were still the ceo, but you're no longer the ceo. did you enquire as to why the current ceo or interim ceo didn't come before this committee? >> i did not, but i felt personally it was my obligation. the breach occurred under my watch, as i said in my written testimony and my oral testimony it, i ultimately take that responsibility, so i thought it important i be here. >> thank you, i get the picture. on august 31st, excuse me, on july 31st, you were notified of the suspicious activity that eventually, as we now know, is 145 million person breach. was it july 31st was it? >> yes, congressman. it was a brief interaction >> verbal interaction? >> yes >> you just referenced as an answer to another one of my colleague's questions on august 31st you received some kind of e-mail referrin

mike patton tonio and this is america's lawyer a recent data breach of the credit reporting agency equifax has exposed the personal data of millions of people across the globe to potentially dangerous and individuals over the course of about two months hackers access all sorts of personal data about the consumers in the united states as well as the data of hundreds of thousands of people in canada the united kingdom and other countries around the world tonight we'll tell you what kind of information was stolen how the company has responded and how you can protect yourself if your information was leaked and later in the show all talking about how the u.s. customs border protection is facing sharp criticism for searching through the private information and laptops in cell phones of u.s. citizens when reentering the country including a nasa engineer so don't go anywhere america's lawyer starts now. in may of this year as americans were planning their summer vacations and counting down the days before their kids got out of school the credit reporting agency equifax was dealing with one of the

ations and counting down the days before their kids got out of school the credit reporting agency equifax was dealing with one of the largest data breaches in american history that resulted in the personal data of more than one hundred forty three million americans getting into the wrong hands to understand the data breach when we talked to you about what a credit reporting agency like equifax is. equifax receive credit card data from credit card companies so phone carriers car dealerships and other corporations who run credit for consumers these agencies report their data to companies like equifax who then use it to generate a credit score what does that mean for you it means companies like equifax have all of your personal data even though you never signed up for the hackers who broke into the equifax system accessed information such as names social security numbers birth dates addresses credit card numbers and even the numbers of some driver's licenses the company said that credit card numbers for about two hundred nine thousand u.s. customers were compromised in addition to personal i

around that time, three equifax executives sold over $1 million of equifax stock that's on august 1st and august 2nd. it is reported that mr. kelly was ultimately responsible for approving those sales. is it true that mr. kelly or one of his direct reports would have been required to sign off on the stock sales? >> yes mr. kelly, our general counsel, own the clearance process -- >> i have a lot of questions, so the answer is yes? he was supposed to sign off? >> yes >> did anyone of these three executives have knowledge that cybersecurity incident had occurred >> the best of my knowledge, congresswoman, no. >> when were they informed that the incident had occurred? >> i don't know exactly the date that they were informed, they were not -- best of my knowledge, they had no knowledge at the time, they cleared their trades, general counsel. >> do you know for sure they didn't know? >> best of my knowledge, they did not know >> and mr. kelly, who we were told knew of the breach, and that it contained personal information and yet still approved the stock sale,is he still chief legal officer

>> first you should not equifax website and here is the important points. no one understands, do this with a secure computer. because if your computer has been hacked and you want to equifax link, you can be opening the back door to your information. once you on the website will put in the last six digits of your social security number and i will tell you whether you have or have not been hacked but take that with a grain of salt because i don't think they are 100 percent sure yet who has and who has not been hacked. >> okay the website is equifax security 2017.com and he said to put in the last security. from your. >> yes stephen then is not certain. you necessarily know because it may not be on the list. will they assist customers whose information was exposed and consequently, maybe having trouble getting loans and eccentrically. >> they have already offered, and again whether you have been hacked or not, you should take advantage of the free one year service that they are offering. i've had quite a few clients have tried to do this to equifax website an

was should we nationalize this you know equifax and should we break them up through the antitrust law should we go back to what i was just describing if in fact that's what you know was real that the credit card companies and other creditors just did their own research and you know you had to prove to them you were who you were i mean what what are the reasonable solutions and and. why has it changed so profoundly in what fifty years since one thousand nine hundred forty s. however long that is the basic explanation is that after one hundred fifty years of rising wages in the united states in which workers became more productive and they got back part of that extra productivity in rising wages in the one nine hundred seventy s. that stopped and it has never resumed that is productivity went up for workers but their wages didn't this was a trauma for the american people and they expected each generation to live better than the one before which they had had they made promises to themselves and their kids of what life would mean they didn't want to give up and so they did something very

of equifax he resigned today just a few weeks after his company one of the world's largest credit reporting firms revealed that it had suffered a massive security breach that exposed the personal information of one hundred forty three million americans to hackers which raises the question just how did a massive for profit corporation like equifax gain access to something such compromising information without the public's consent and what does this tell us about capitalism joining me now is richard wool visiting professor at the new school cofounder of democracy at work and the author of numerous books including capitalism is crisis deepens essays on the global economic meltdown professor will welcome back. thank you tom glad to be here it's great to have you with us i think this scandal has really exposed to a lot of people how really little control we have over our own individual private financial information equifax is just one company a ten billion dollar industry that sucks up our data for profit i robot in the seventies running a small business having to jump through all kinds of hoops

the ex— box of equifax said errors we re the ex— box of equifax said errors were made. richard smith will also say that he is sorry. this comes as the company admitted 2.5 million more customers may have been impacted by the breach. the personal information of nearly one in two americans lost on after one of the three major american checking agencies was hacked. everybody should be nervous. that is your life there. i think the company sucks. they ought to go to jail. hundreds and thousands of people's information at risk. this man, richard smith, the equifax boss who retired last week will say human error and technology failure were to blame. chicago became the latest city to suit equifax. the mayor demanding to know how hackers stole the data. equifax failed to protect information of chicago consumers and failed to notify them in a timely manner. july 29 was the first breach. three senior executives sold shares and the public was not told about the hack roughly six weeks later. this is really almost an attack on our economic system. mark warner, urged congress to rethi

it was not just equifax try to get away with something. this is what all banks and lenders do all the time. nermeen: sarah huckabee sanders told nbc news this rule would "harm our community banks and credit unions by opening the door to frivolous lawsuits by special-interest lawyers." amanda, can you comment on what she said, and of course, the fact trump supports this? and you yourself were affected by the data breach by equifax. could you talk more about that? >> absolutely. one of the biggest talking points we see is trying to use community banks and credit unions as a shield for these big companies that will actually benefit. community banks and credit unions by a large do not use these clauses at all. we have an enough from one of the heads of one of these credit union associations that actually admits their members do not use forced arbitration. i don't see why they would have a dog in this fight. the smaller banks and credit unions will actually benefit by having a level playing field where they can compete with angst like wells far

maybe they could prevent that equifax breach?. >> so to eliminate that as risk-management that they may face with their conduct or their business there is federal guidance created of the implementation and practices of the use of encryption of the data process. so what is implemented where they apply a the encryption and how those keys have legitimate access to continue to conduct business. . . . . >> the ftc has law-enforcement authority and we feel as though we are not unsupervised with respect to the data security. we have our banking customers that are regularly auditing us and i say however if there are gaps in supervision we would be happy to talk with you about that. >> very quickly. >> to safeguard rules and important data security standards only applies right now after the fact. they can only act against a credit reporting agency once the breach occurs. we think they should have the ability before to inspect and determine compliance with standards. >> senator brown. >> you stated credit reporting systems provide criticall

.- equifax host: good morning. the house and senate will meet in a brief sessions ahead of the columbus day weekend. we have a three-hour program or you. we begin with the news that the national nation has joined the on pump restrictions stock devices it was seen as an opening looking to take action of the wake of the las vegas attack even as other done rights groups rejected the idea. lines open.e republicans can call at (202) 784-8001. democrats can call (202) 748-8000. independence call (202) 748-8002 . a very good friday morning to you the headline in the wall street journal, prospects for a gun measure deal grow. there is the release of the name and iv national rifle assist the asian. this is what it says. we know the shooter in the las vegas attack had firearms, 12 with stocks. saysublican from florida dozens of republicans have contacted his office about cosponsoring bipartisan legislation to ban the manufacture or sale of bump stocks. dianne feinstein has introduced similar legislation in the senate. we wan

for equifax fallouts. details that millions of others were affected by the massive data breach coming as the former ceos testifying in washington this morning on the hacking disaster. back in a moment. when it might be time to buy or sell? with fidelity's real-time analytics, you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity. open an account today. fidelity. intelligent technology can help protect it. the 2018 audi q5 is here. maria: welcome back. former ceo of equifax will testify today. the first of several he will make this week before congressional panels. cheryl casone with the details. >> at morning, murray appeared richard smith set up a fax failed to implement the fix two security flaws back in march to cause the massive security breach that around. it's review has increased the number of affected consumers in this country by 2.5 million. now look in a 145 by 5 million people affect it by this breach. shares of equifax down 10% so far this year. ano

the equifax are ill luminating. i'm thinking of the office of personal management breach in 2015 when over 21 million security files were exposed. the data lost in the equifax breach when combined any other sets of data could make dangerous road maps in our security system. oftentimes when we talk about cyber security it comes off as really hopeless but i'm actually an optimist. and why is that? we have some brilliant people working on these problems. corporate r and d groups, independent researchers, academics, government agencies and think tanks, whether it's in the nitty gritty like malware reversal, our country does have the capacity to make progress on these problems. we just need to yolk our resources together in a meaningful way. i can talk about what our country's universities can provide. we have a culture of exploration. we embrace tough challenges and have the free om dom to take ri. the challenges we face in cyber security are real. we face them together and we're committed to creating solutions. so i'd

the equifax are illuminating. i'm thinking particularly of the office of personal management breach when over 120 million security files were exposed. when combined with other sets of data could make dangerous road maps in our national security system. oftentimes when we talk about cyber security it comes across as really hopeless. i'm actually an optimist and why is that? we have some brilliant people working on those options. government agencies and think tanks, whether it is in the nitty-gritty our country does have the capacity to make progress on these problems. we need to get our resources together in a meaningful way. we have a culture of exploration. we embrace tough challenges. we believe in research and discovery of public value. i'm looking forward to our discussion. thank you. >> good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to testify today. it is troubling. it stands out not only the number of americans effected. social security numbers, credit histories. i teach my opportunities so damaging because

we've subpoenaed documents from equifax. we expect to be receiving those materials very quickly. let me--let me tell you, we will get to the bottom of this investigation, we will hold equifax accountable. in the meantime, equifax has demonstrated some horrible corporate behavior, forcing people to pay to have their credit frozen, forcing them to sign up for different things that they don't want to sign up for with equifax. we've shut that down. we've also shut down equifax's attempt to stop people-- or to force people to give up their legal rights. so, while the investigation's ongoing, we're trying to stop this bad corporate behavior. i want pennsylvanians to know, i want americans to know we'll get to the bottom of it, we'll hold equifax accountable, we'll recover any funds that are lost. and i hope this also sparks a broader discussion amongst policy makers on how to best protect our data going forward. we need tougher laws in this area, both on data breach and on cyber security. we're trying to lead the way in pennsylvania to do that. lauren: thank you so much. all right, com

look at equifax. in early september we learned it compromised the personal data of more than 145 million americans, five million in my state, probably twice that in the presiding officer's state. names, dates of birth, addresses, social security numbers, driver's licenses, more than half the adult population of the united states of america. so how did equifax respond? by immediately trying to trick customers, their consumers, their customers into signing away their rights to access the court system in exchange for credit monitoring. here's what equifax did in simple terms. equifax said oh, we'll give you a free year of credit monitoring. sign right here. oh, yeah, when you sign right here, the fine print says, but you can't ever sue us. you have to go through this forced arbitration which of course almost nobody does. almost nobody understands and almost no consumer ever wins. only after senators and consumer groups led a public outcry, then they backed down. we sat on the banking committee and listen

now equifax hacked? stuart: the hearings last couple days will result in challenges to equifax's basic business model. they're not on the side of the consumer but they're making money off consumers. ashley: scott shellady on the show last week, hasn't heard of one customer of equifax, we're dropping you, that is interesting. liz: corporate customer. ashley: people that use equifax. stuart: equifax is in business of serving banks, helping banks. that is who they are geared towards, not we the people with our information stolen. they give to the banks. liz: one person had 242 pages of information at equifax, on that one person. stuart: that was in the hearing. thank you, senator kennedy. we appreciate what you did for us yesterday. we'll be back. my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people... ...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your busines

it's been quite a few weeks for credit reporting agency equifax. last month the company revealed it had been hacked, potentially compromising the data of 145 million people. since then, the ceo stepped down and apologized. several other executives also left. there are investigations by federal and state agencies includg the department of justice. now today the company said it was looking into a possible second breach but later in the day reversed course, kind of, instead of putting the issue on a third party vendor. andrea day explains. >> reporter: it comes just one month after the credit giant disclosed a hack that compromised sensitive information of more than 145 million people. then today equifax, taking one of its consumer web pages offline, the same page people use to dispute issues in their credit report. this is all after an independent security analyst discovered that equifax's credit report assistant link contained malware. according to the website, visitors were tricked into installing fake adobe flash updates that could affect computer

look at this. >> equifax deserves to be shamed in this hearing. >> it is unconscionable that equifax failed so spectacularly. >> this is unacceptable. how does this happen when so much is at stake? i don't think we can pass a law that, excuse me for saying this, that fixes stupid. >> you need to be held accountable. >> you should have anticipated it. >> this really stinks. i mean it really smells really bad. >> what in heaven's name were y'all thinking? >> okay. it stinks, but who cares? to make matters worse, lawmakers weren't so happy to learn that equifax in the midst of all of this was awarded a $7.3 million government contract to help the irs guard against fraud. we're going to talk about that contract in a minute. but this takes me to the financial crisis. boom, we're mad at you, you did such a bad job. this guy is going to go home and be just as rich today as he was yesterday. so big deal, he was embarrassed. >> the problem is, dare i use the phrase, these guys are too big to fail and that is the problem. >> do you get paid every time we say too big to fail? >> there's a littl

hardly as reprehensible as an equifax or wells fargo in doing what they do. but people on the other hand somehow have this mythology because of the hard right and the machine and their think tanks and their media messaging -- foxx news -- fox news, that somehow the powerful are getting a bad break in america and the average person has too much power. what is wrong? and i will say this. this will lead to people being even more disillusioned and more angry and more sour and will move away from what the american dream, ideal and optimism is. and my colleagues on the other side -- my dear friends, i like them, i really do -- wittingly or unwittingly are part of this movement. and it's a shame. it's a shame. community banks aren't beleaguered by these cases. they don't usually do this stuff. when i talk to community bankers who lobbied me on this, they said to me, basically, we're with the banking association, the big banks want this. this is not little banks. these are the wells fargos and equifaxs, and we shouldn't do it. we shouldn't do it. i worry about this c

everyone from equifax to yahoo!, saying buy? >> well, you know i'm not necessarily saying buy, but buy the trend. there is company fireeye, into cybersecurity, seen pretty good growth so far this year. it's a company that flopped after the ipo. been kind of moving away from big ticket sales to more subscription based, reliable revenue. supposed to be profitable in 2017. morgan stanley upgraded fireeye they are great to play the trend, hacking will happen, what can you do to profit from it? a stock like fireeye. liz: these stocks live and die by the news flow, oh, there is a huge hack. this goes up. huge names go up. we're one minute away from hearing the closing bell. what propelled markets today? that is what confuses investors. are there any news flow, particularly spiked and added rocket fuel. >> not really, that is the thing. liz: this past week maybe we get more coming up this week. jeff, thank you very much. jeff reeves, investorplace.com director of content. [closing bell rings] there is the closing bell. this is the seco