IRS Suspends $7 Million Contract With Equifax After Malware Discovered (cbsnews.com)

After malware was discovered on Equifax's website again, the IRS decided late Thursday that it would temporarily suspend the agency's $7.1 million data security contract with the company. CBS News reports: In September, Equifax revealed that it had exposed 143 million consumer files -- containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and even bank account information -- to hackers in an unprecedented security lapse. The number of consumer potentially affect by the data breach was later raised to 145.5 million. The company's former CEO blamed a single careless employee for the entire snafu. But even as he was getting grilled in Congress earlier this month, the IRS was awarding the company with a no-bid contract to provide "fraud prevention and taxpayer identification services." "Following new information available today, the IRS temporarily suspended its short-term contract with Equifax for identity proofing services," the agency said in a statement. "During this suspension, the IRS will continue its review of Equifax systems and security." The agency does not believe that any data the IRS has shared with Equifax to date has been compromised, but the suspension was taken as "a precautionary step."

Comments

Yay!

[thegreatbob]

Better late than never. I can't help but feel that, somehow, some sort of future disaster was just narrowly averted.

Second chance, really?

[markdavis]

So it takes a SECOND breech before they decide to suspend the contract? If they have the option to suspend it now, why didn't they do it before? I think this speaks volumes about the competence of the IRS.

How about we move to a simple flat tax with no loopholes, which would dismantle 80% of the IRS and either pass the savings onto the taxpayers or use the savings to start paying off the 20 TRILLION DOLLAR national debt?

Even they admit they directly spend over 12 BILLION dollars a year, which goes up every year! Yet that doesn't include what it costs businesses and individuals to COMPLY with the insanely complicated tax codes. That compliance is estimated to cost the USA economy an additional $409 BILLION dollars every year. Wow, that works out to $3,500 dollars for every tax payer in the country, every year.

https://taxfoundation.org/comp...

https://www.usatoday.com/story...

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

https://fairtax.org/index

Re:Second chance, really?

[whoever57]

Because "flat tax" really means "tax increase for the poor, tax cut for the wealthy".

It's also not as simple as people would like to think. You run a business, what's a legitimate expense and what isn't? The costs of compliance (which are probably exaggerated by the site you linked to) are not going to be zero with a flat tax.

"The Tax Foundation is funded by private donations from members, corporate donations, and donations from charitable foundation such as the Koch Foundation, Earhart Foundation, etc."

Funded in part by the Koch Brothers. Yes, that's going to have promoting the interests of ordinary Americans as one of its most important goals.