10
World @ Glance
Legal Updates From Across The Globe
United States of America
EQUIFAX TARGETED BY MALWARE
Monday, October 16, 2017
Confirming that its systems were not compromised and
that the reported issue did not affect its consumer online
dispute portal, Equifax said, “The issue involves a third-party
vendor that Equifax uses to collect website performance
data and that vendor’s code running on an Equifax website
was serving malicious content. Since we learned of the
issue, the vendor’s code was removed from the webpage
and we have taken the webpage offline.”
Once again, Equifax, which is a consumer credit reporting
agency (oldest of the three largest credit agencies) that
collects and aggregates information on over 800 million
individual consumers and more than 88 million businesses
worldwide, appears to be a target of yet another attack.
Equifax took down one of its customer assistance website
pages as its cyber security team investigated another
possible breach. According to security analyst Randy
Abrams, the site redirected some visitors to download a
fraudulent update for Adobe Flash that would infect the
user’s computer with Malware.
Earlier, Equifax had announced that a security breach
released information of approximately 143 million
customers, including names, birth dates, Social Security
numbers, addresses, and possibly even driver’s license
numbers. Equifax said that it discovered the breach on
July 29 and believes that the unauthorized access occurred
from mid-May through July.
Following that initial announcement, Equifax released
information that an additional 2.5 million Americans may
have been affected by the massive breach, bringing the
total to 145.5 million people. Notably, the breach happened
because of a mistake by a single employee. In this regard,
Equifax’s then Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive
Officer Richard F. Smith had apologized to the members
of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the
American people for the security lapse.
HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVE ORDER ISSUED: TRUMP
Monday, October 16, 2017
On October 12, an executive order was signed by US
President Donald Trump, making the buying of more forms
of health insurance at potentially cheaper costs, easier for
the people.
The order recognized three main areas of priority:
allowing small business access to association health plans
(AHP), expanding use of short term, limited-duration
insurance (STLDI), and expanding health reimbursement
arrangements (HRA).
Under AHPs, small business will be able to come together,
even across state lines, to provide less regulated, cheaper
health care for employees.
Opposition leaders have condemned Trump’s actions.
Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, stated “Having
failed to repeal the law in Congress, the President is
N ovember 2017 | L egal E ra | www . legaleraonline . com
ravaging the system.” Specialists have stated that this could
dismantle comprehensive coverage for the sick and lower
classes in the country, contrary to the goals set out within
the executive order itself.