U.S. Charges 4 Chinese Military Officers in 2017 Equifax Hack

The U.S. Justice Department today unsealed indictments against four Chinese officers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) accused of perpetrating the 2017 hack against consumer credit bureau Equifax that led to the theft of personal data on nearly 150 million Americans. DOJ officials said the four men were responsible for carrying out the largest theft of sensitive personal information by state-sponsored hackers ever recorded.  Continue reading U.S. Charges 4 Chinese Military Officers in 2017 Equifax Hack

SEC commissioner: ‘our companies, and our country, are under attack’

The Securities and Exchange Commissioner says that corporations need to do more to protect investors from the financial damages of data beaches. Speaking at Tulane University’s Corporate Tulane Law School on Thursday, a leader of the SEC plainly stated that American companies are “under attack” from hackers. “The cyberthreat is not primarily a regulatory issue any more than it is primarily a technological issue. Cybercrime is an enterprise-level risk that will require an interdisciplinary approach, significant investments of time and talent by senior leadership and board-level attention,” SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson said. The SEC issued updated guidance last month for how companies should approach the issue of breach disclosure. Jackson said that he only reluctantly joined the guidance because it leaves too much discretion to corporate counsel to decide whether investors should be informed of an incident. “I worry that these judgments have, too often, erred on the side of nondisclosure, […]

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Former Equifax executive charged with insider trading after mega breach

A former Equifax executive is facing charges from both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice for insider trading before the company publicly announced a massive breach in September 2017. The SEC said in a press release that Jun Ying, Equifax’s former chief information officer, allegedly used privileged information to conclude that Equifax had suffered a breach and subsequently sold all of his stocks for a total of nearly $1 million. The agency claims that, by selling stocks before the company’s public notification, Ying dodged $117,000 in losses. “Ying used confidential information to conclude that his company had suffered a massive data breach, and he dumped his stock before the news went public,” said Richard Best, director of the SEC’s regional office in Atlanta in the release. “Corporate insiders who learn inside information, including information about material cyber intrusions, cannot betray shareholders for their own financial benefit.” The U.S. Attorney’s […]

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