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Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

gizmodo.com

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Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#81

Post by travisjungroth »

_bxg1 wrote: post #5

It sounds like most of these costs are just from having to finally do the things they skimped on in the first place. If so, it's not really a loss compared to if they had taken the right steps at the beginning. So it may not really disincentivize them from cutting corners again in the future. It'd be like if the only punishment for getting caught cheating on a test was "well now you have to take the test without chea…

It’s more like if you got caught cheating during a test you had to stop cheating but kept taking the same test and got credit for all of your previous answers. Equifax still has its past profits.

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#82

Post by motohagiography »

What gizmodo overlooks is that a Moody's rating is usually related to company debt, which means that a ratings downgrade increases the interest rate they have to pay to roll over existing debt or issue new debt.

Seems like a company with a large debt/income ratio could be crippled pretty fast by a ratings downgrade because it increases the percentage of revenue they pay in debt interest. If they have a high debt load and their profit margins are single digit, they risk ceasing to be profitable, which will tank the stock. It's a spiral.

If they have catastrophic cybersecurity exposure that opens them up to fines, settlements, and customer attrition as a result of an incident like the one that affected Equifax, well that's a target for a fire sale.

It's practically inviting hackers to target companies with high debt/income ratios on behalf of short sellers for that reason. It would be a slow motion car crash that would be hard to time correctly, but the confluence of debt/leverage and security risk seems like a perfect storm.

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#83

Post by KingMachiavelli »

mr_toad wrote: post #80
r00fus wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least for that one, it can ostensibly explained by "In Windows tar isn't supported". But a security director being suspicious of PGP encryption is a sign of a know-nothing in a position of power.

WinZip and 7z support tgz.

No one in their right mind would use anything but 7zip... especially trailware like WinZip and WinRar. Windows has built in Zip support if you're not in-the-know but to go out of your way to use WinZip/WinRar implies a certial level of out of date knowledge.

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#84

Post by tigershark »

craftyguy wrote: post #73
duxup wrote: post #6

I recall someone who was a security director at Panera Bread (a US based fast casual restaurant). Was confused and upset when a security researcher contacted them and asked to exchange a PGP key ... I suspect he straight up didn't understand what the request for a key meant or possibly even the issue as it was a very obvious issue and they did nothing about it until it hit the press. His previous job... at Equifax. O…

In a world where even Rudy Giuliani is able to become a renowned 'cyber security' expert with his own consulting firm, job titles can obviously be misleading.

Wait...What???

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#86

Post by saltyshake »

W-Stool wrote: post #4

How these guys are still in business and still collecting financial data on US citizens frankly baffles me.

They have a monopoly similar to Microsoft in the 90s.

Everyone is simply using them and there is no good popular alternative.

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#87

Post by acchow »

ufo wrote: post #26
duxup wrote: post #6

I recall someone who was a security director at Panera Bread (a US based fast casual restaurant). Was confused and upset when a security researcher contacted them and asked to exchange a PGP key ... I suspect he straight up didn't understand what the request for a key meant or possibly even the issue as it was a very obvious issue and they did nothing about it until it hit the press. His previous job... at Equifax. O…

The initial email exchange is indeed a sight to see, so I transcribed the text in the image: --------- Hello Mike et al Thank you for making yourself available. There is a security vulnerability on the delivery.panerabread.com website that exposes sensitive information belonging to every customer who has signed for an account to order Panera Bread once. This shows the customer's full name, email address, phone number…

Someone needs to hop on Panera's next earnings call and ask why they aren't taking security seriously.

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#88

Post by acct1771 »

tigershark wrote: post #84
craftyguy wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a world where even Rudy Giuliani is able to become a renowned 'cyber security' expert with his own consulting firm, job titles can obviously be misleading.

Wait...What???

Yes, people lie, especially in public.

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#89

Post by lone_haxx0r »

siffland wrote: post #32
ufo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The initial email exchange is indeed a sight to see, so I transcribed the text in the image: --------- Hello Mike et al Thank you for making yourself available. There is a security vulnerability on the delivery.panerabread.com website that exposes sensitive information belonging to every customer who has signed for an account to order Panera Bread once. This shows the customer's full name, email address, phone number…

reminds me of the time Oklahoma City was threatening CentoOS with calling the FBI because there website was down and they thought CentOS hacked it: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/24/tuttle_centos/ If you are in a position where you don't understand the e-mail then ASK someone who does. Or a quick google search with "PGP e-mail", wow was that so hard. The guy was probably late for a golf game or something (ok n…

"How did they not die as babies? considering they were likely too stupid to find a tit to suck on"

Linus Torvalds on idiots (more specifically: people who read things one byte at a time, with system calls for each byte.)

Re: Moody’s downgraded Equifax from “stable” to “negative” due to cybersecurity

#90

Post by lone_haxx0r »

x2f10 wrote: post #58
meritt wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That guy still works at Panera and guess where he worked prior as Sr Director of Security Operations... Equifax! https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-gustavison-b020426/

Remember people like this when you're casually entering your private information online. Shocking.

People like him are why we can't reuse passwords
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