Equifax software bug messed up credit score calculations for weeks

US credit agency Equifax says errant computer code led the company to provide inaccurate credit information about US folks to financial institutions for a period of about three weeks earlier this year. "Equifax identified a coding issue within a legacy, on-premise server environment in the US slated to be migrated to the new …

[MachDiamond]

Whaaaa?

"The massive hack led Equifax to invest $1.5 billion "to build a top-tier, cloud-native technology and security infrastructure," as the company puts it."

Cloud-native and secure aren't two things I'd put together. There is a huge attack surface with "cloud" things and often a large number of players involved as companies outsource so many things these days. Frankly, I'd feel much more secure if Equifax said they bought a disused mine or three and located their hardware on the lowest levels guarded by lots of reinforced concrete and vault doors to prevent physical attacks and institute strict access control and deployed many of their own data connections so they could better monitor access there as well.

Botching important software and doing deployments without proper testing is universal these days as companies race to the be first with something rather than the best.

[KittenHuffer]

Re: Whaaaa?

Would there be a sign involved saying "Beware of the leopard"?

[JimmyPage]

I smell

a class action lawsuit.

[tfewster]

Re: I smell

Damaging someone's reputation by posting false information about them is libel. A class action might prove the precedent, but won't be sufficient compensation for someone who lost their house/car/job over this.

[Jim Mitchell]

Re: I smell

Class actions almost always settle, no precedent will be set. This was also probably not on purpose, reducing it to negligence rather than malicious.

Either way, this is American, you're getting a coupon for a free Equifax credit report. Which is probably already free.

[PRR]

Re: I smell

> ..class action lawsuit.

Already started.

Meanwhile:

"Florida resident Nydia Jenkins against Equifax alleging she had received a "substantially pricier car loan" (resulting in an additional loan payment of $2,352 more per year) due to Equifax reporting her credit score 130 points off from what it should have been."

130 points is WAY off. (Mine varied less than 20 points over a bad year.) $2.3k/year, $196/month extra payment is brutal in this market.

[heyrick]

Another reason

It should be enshrined in law that you have the right to challenge automatic computer-made decisions, and have the right to access all of the information used to arrive at said decision.

[Herring`]

Re: Another reason

Well it is here in the UK. But for how long, I wouldn't like to guess.

[tiggity]

computer says no

for UK readers above a certain age

[Mike 137]

""Equifax identified a coding issue within a legacy, on-premise server environment "

Everything at Equifax appears to be 'legacy'. The Apache Struts breach of 2017 targeted a 'legacy application' as well. Maybe it's time to modernise their asset base?

[EricB123]

Re: ""Equifax identified a coding issue within a legacy, on-premise server environment "

Or maybe it's time to stop using honky tonk companies to determine someone's character in the first place.

[Mayday]

Equifux

Bank or similar body: your credit score is bad, therefore you are unable to get a mortgage and you’re on the street

Customer; How can that be? I pay off everything on time. I’ll investigate!

Equifux: We broke something. Sorry. Not your fault.

Customer: But I’m on the street now? What can I do? Consumers evidently rely on accurate reporting by you lot for our livelihoods. Well that’s what you tell us anyway.

Equifux: I’ll refer you to our previous sorry message and we’ll also add that we take security and IT issues seriously.

[Anonymous Coward]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CfWDYU2LaM

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ObYSWhgxBT4J:https://twitter.com/infosys/status/656976042452779010%3Flang%3Deu+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

[TeeCee]

Computer says...

...urk, wibble, wibble, wibble, I'm a teapot.