The IRS Drops Contract with EQUIFAX

Hallelujah! The IRS has finally, finally come to their senses and distrusted EQUIFAX. Earlier today the IRS announced that it has temporarily suspended a $7.25 million contract with EQUIFAX to help verify taxpayers’ identities when creating accounts on the agency’s website, citing “new information available today.”

The new information is undoubtedly that massive fuck-up involving the web page which was resending customers to Adware downloads. A small update in this regard says that yesterday, the company took the page down. But they denied their systems had been (additionally) compromised, blaming the issue on “a third-party vendor that EQUIFAX uses to collect website performance data.”

Let’s remind the people that even members of the Senate have urged the IRS to cancel the contract as well. “We have no assurances that our constituents’ personal information is safe in their hands,” Was the general gist of the concerns of the Senate. Considering the fact that the company we’re talking about is responsible for one of the biggest Data Breaches in history. That’s an understatement in and of itself since EQUIFAX isn’t capable of anything.

A spokesperson told Gizmodo that “the IRS notified us that they have issued a Stop-Work Order under our Transaction Support for Identity Management contract. We remain confident that we are the best party to perform the services required in this contract. We are engaging IRS officials to review the facts and clarify available options.”

And that is far, far, FAR from the truth. The company is known for various incidents, which I’ll happily remind the public for. Let’s see, they allowed the CEO step out of the company with $18 Million Dollars, they also are responsible for hiring a Music Major as a Chief of Security. Oh, let’s also not forget the fact that they also led customers to phishing websites. And who could forget the fact they are under investigation on behalf of USA’s Department of Justice? Truly, a very capable company that doesn’t need to be shut down.