UK watchdog put £11 million penalty on Equifax Ltd

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom has fined Equifax Ltd (Equifax) £11,164,400 for failing to maintain and monitor the security of UK consumer data it had outsourced to its parent company in the United States. The breach gave hackers access to millions of people's personal information, exposing UK consumers to the risk of financial crime.

FCA Told that Equifax's Parent Company, Equifax Inc, was the victim of one of the greatest cybersecurity breaches in history in 2017. Cyber-hackers gained access to the personal information of about 13.8 million UK consumers since Equifax outsourced data processing to Equifax Inc's servers in the United States.

The hackers collected names, dates of birth, phone numbers, Equifax membership login details, partially exposed credit card details, and residential addresses from UK consumers. Equifax failed to provide enough oversight of how the data it sent was managed and secured. Equifax Inc's data security systems had known errors, and Equifax failed to take sufficient action to secure UK consumer data.

Jessica Rusu, FCA chief data, information, and intelligence officer commented “Cybersecurity and data protection are of growing importance to the security and stability of financial services,”

Therese Chambers, Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, said: 'Financial firms hold data on customers that is highly attractive to criminals. They have a duty to keep it safe and Equifax failed to do so.

They compounded this failure by the ways they mishandled their response to the data breach. Regulated firms are on the hook, regardless of whether they outsource or not. The risk of identity theft never stops. Cyber criminals are sophisticated d innovative; it is imperative that firms maintain the highest standards in data protection.

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