Reputation

Equifax, the credit rating bureau, has a besmirched reputation, and it deserves it. The company lost 143 million names, social security numbers, credit card numbers and personal data through a breach of its system, and it delayed in announcing the hack for five weeks. Privacy advocates exploded in rage over the incident. It didn’t help that company executives sold stock prior to the announcement of the loss. Equifax has put up a web site to deal with the problem but it is poorly designed and hard to use. The CEO has released a video in which he apologizes for the intrusion, but it is hardly enough. It is up to consumers to protect themselves as best they can, and that isn’t easy. It is a PR disaster and the company will need many months to restore its reputation, if it can.