University of sunderland

Corporate governance failures and issues of Equifax Inc.

Main issues in corporate governance.

Through the utilization of effective corporate governance practices, stakeholder values and interests are safeguarded while concurrently improving organizational performance and enforcing accountability.
The crucial concerns of corporate governance encompass:
Fairness for all stakeholders at each level should be ensured. It is crucial to solve violations in a competent manner.
Transparency The organization ought to be open and forthright, without having to keep confidential information. The organization's transactions and procedures ought to be open for scrutiny by external parties.
Corporate governance leadership is responsible for setting and directing important strategies that promote a culture that improves business performance.
Stakeholder engagement involves making sure important stakeholders are actively involved with the organization to achieve the most favorable outcome.

After millions of people's sensitive personal information was exposed in a 2017 data breach, Equifax Inc. experienced a significant setback in its corporate governance. Hackers were able to access personal information like social security numbers, dates of birth, and addresses by taking advantage of a vulnerability in Equifax's systems.

After hackers gained access to Equifax's credit-report databases for several months, the company revealed in September 2017 that the personal data of over 143 million Americans had been compromised. As of March 2018, that number had increased to over 148 million. In addition, the business held off on reporting the breach for six weeks.
According to the GAO report, "Equifax determined that several major factors facilitated the attackers' ability to successfully gain access to its network and extract information from databases containing PII" and that "key contributing factors were in the areas of identification, detection, segmentation, and data governance"
It has been widely criticized because Equifax's reaction to the attack lacked openness, communication, and responsibility. In particular, the company confronted scrutiny over delays in public disclosure of breaches, the adequacy of responses to affected individuals, and the effectiveness of internal controls and risk management practices.
Equifax did not provide security and transparency. Therefore, Equifax attracted substantial criticism. It was a terrible calamity that Equifax's board of directors lacked a cyber-security committee. Hackers discover the Equifax company's vulnerable point. also Personal information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, and addresses could not be held by Equifax. These instances are also indicative of a lack of corporate governance in an organization.
The incident prompted numerous regulatory agency and congressional committee investigations, as well as a great deal of litigation and settlements. As a consequence, Equifax altered its governance practices by appointing a new chief executive officer and establishing a distinct cybersecurity committee of the board of directors.

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