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IRS Awards $7 Million Fraud Prevention Contract To Equifax (politico.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The IRS will pay Equifax $7.25 million to verify taxpayer identities and help prevent fraud under a no-bid contract issued last week, even as lawmakers lash the embattled company about a massive security breach that exposed personal information of as many as 145.5 million Americans. A contract award for Equifax's data services was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities database Sept. 30 -- the final day of the fiscal year. The credit agency will "verify taxpayer identity" and "assist in ongoing identity verification and validations" at the IRS, according to the award. The notice describes the contract as a "sole source order," meaning Equifax is the only company deemed capable of providing the service. It says the order was issued to prevent a lapse in identity checks while officials resolve a dispute over a separate contract. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blasted the IRS decision.
I may agree in other circumstances, but awarding a contract for fraud prevention to what's probably the largest victim of a form of fraud in human history- an entity that is now trying to deflect blame by citing conditions that they themselves created in the first place, is about as stupid as it gets.
Equifax deserves to have its charter revoked, basically the corporate death penalty, with its assets liquidated and all of the proceeds going to a mitigation fund to attempt to combat the expected identity theft that the public will see in the upcoming years. Its officers should be prosecuted and if the ensuing investigation shows they were willfully negligent, the personal gains they made through those negligent actions should be confiscated through a civil forfeiture process as they're sentenced to jailtime. This is not the company that one awards a no-bid contract to.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Equifax is not actually preventing fraud. I worked a similar project where another government agency was also trying to prevent fraud and abuse, and we used Equifax as a data source specifically to confirm identities. You provide them certain information (first name, last name, date of birth, address, etc. etc.) and they would confirm whether you had the correct person, often filling in the blanks. The agency would then use that information, along with other inputs, to determine whether fraud was being committed.
The IRS is doing the same thing - given the information available, Equifax will confirm whether the IRS is looking at the correct person. While I agree that Equifax needs to get their house in order or even be completely shut down, the contract awarded does speak to the fact that there are precious few identity providers out there. In fact, this may just go to show how much congress would NOT wish to sign the Equifax death certificate when they have much to lose in the way of services provided by Equifax.