Founded in 1899 as a small credit company, Equifax was incorporated in 1913 and has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. This company has four major operational segments mainly the US information solutions, the international segment, the global solutions segment and the workforce solutions segment (Reuters, 2018).
Company Industry and Purpose
Equifax Inc. is a multinational dealing in the provision of human resource solutions and information services to businesses, individuals and even governments. It is a major player in the financial information services industry competing with other established Credit Bureaus like Experian, Dun & Bradstreet and Transunion (Rucker, 2018). Equifax’s US information Solutions segment …show more content…
One of the most vital services offered by Equifax to individuals and businesses is its analytical insights that are useful in decision making concerning financial matters. This service, in addition to verifying the identities of businesses and individuals, makes Equifax a significant player in the Credit bureau business in the US (Reuters, 2018).
Company Profile
Given its global operations, Equifax has sizable annual revenue amounting to 3.144 billion USD. Its reputation as a premier credit bureau in the US has been tarnished by recent events of data breaches with the latest data breach being so severe that it triggered a congressional inquiry into its business practices (Rucker, 2018).
Company Organizational Structure
According to the annual financial report the company organizational structure can be represented according to the various diverse functional areas. The firm has eight major functional areas including the Chief Executive Officer function (Equifax, 2016). The firm business is also structured into four major business units. It thus has a complex …show more content…
In 2016, Equifax was sued by one of its clients (Kroger- which is a retail firm) for an attack, which compromised about four hundred and thirty thousand names, addresses, and other assorted personal information of this client’s database. The class action suit cited a willful disregard for proper data security measures given previous attacks on Equifax databases. This was not the only incident as Equifax admitted to data breaches in late 2013 and early 2014 that compromised credit reports of a handful of Equifax Clients. Moreover, in 2016, a security researcher discovered a cross-site-scripting vulnerability in the main Equifax website (Fox-Brewster, 2017). This flaw, which is common in the cybersecurity industry, allows the hackers to obtain the login information of their targets by sending them specifically crafted clickable