EFX - Equifax Inc.
| Previous Close | 162.26 |
| Open | 163.00 |
| Bid | 135.00 x 800 |
| Ask | 162.48 x 800 |
| Day's Range | 162.05 - 164.38 |
| 52 Week Range | 105.58 - 164.77 |
| Volume | 900,208 |
| Avg. Volume | 655,016 |
| Market Cap | 19.751B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | 1.20 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -3.30 |
| Earnings Date | May 07, 2020 - May 11, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 1.56 (0.96%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | Nov 20, 2019 |
| 1y Target Est | 162.94 |
ABC News VideosEquifax data breach may have been state-sponsored crime
The theft of personal names, birth dates, social security numbers and addresses may have been a state-sponsored crime, according to the Department of Justice.
- PR Newswire
Equifax And V12 Partner To Offer Powerful Digital Marketing Solutions For Automotive Retailers
Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) and V12 announced a strategic relationship to deliver powerful digital marketing solutions to the automotive industry during the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show today in Las Vegas. This relationship combines anonymized Equifax customer economic data, based on direct measured sources, with V12 vehicle insights. Available through Equifax Automotive, the solution is designed to drive customer acquisition by matching the right car with the right buyer through a personalized shopping experience. The insight that comes from knowing what the consumer is currently driving helps automotive retailers maximize their digital marketing budgets.
- PR Newswire
Equifax And Inventory Command Center Team Up To Optimize Automotive Digital Retailing
Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) and Inventory Command Center LLC (ICC) today announced a new partnership to help automotive enterprise clients take more control of how they receive, manage and display dealer inventory. This relationship expands the Equifax Automotive Solutions Suite and will help its enterprise clients to improve the speed, accuracy and management of vehicle inventory data from dealer partners.
- PR Newswire
Equifax Introduces New Suite Of Digital Retailing Solutions To Create Seamless Online Auto Shopping Experience
Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) show in Las Vegas a new suite of digital retailing solutions that aim to remove frustrations often associated with today's online car shopping where early-stage research and preferences rarely translate to showroom experience. Three new offerings: Digital ID, Digital Qualify, and Digital Accelerate are designed to help dealers, lenders and third-party service providers to identify, authenticate, qualify and customize the right deal for each online shopper. This suite complements a robust selection of Equifax Automotive offerings that help dealers to accelerate the financing process and get customers into a vehicle that meets their needs faster.
- Thomson Reuters StreetEvents
Edited Transcript of EFX earnings conference call or presentation 13-Feb-20 1:30pm GMT
Q4 2019 Equifax Inc Earnings Call
- Barrons.com
U.S. Stocks Are Making a Comeback Despite the Latest Bad News About the Coronavirus
The three major U.S. stock-market indexes were near the break-even mark despite news that Chinese officials reported a dramatic increase in the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus.
- Zacks
Equifax (EFX) Surpasses Q4 Earnings & Revenue Estimates
Equifax (EFX) fourth-quarter 2019 earnings and revenues increase year over year.
- American City Business Journals
Equifax says data breach has cost it nearly $2 billion so far
In 2019 alone, the company had $1.138 billion in expenses related to the 2017 cybersecurity incident.
- Zacks
Equifax (EFX) Surpasses Q4 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
Equifax (EFX) delivered earnings and revenue surprises of 2.68% and 0.96%, respectively, for the quarter ended December 2019. Do the numbers hold clues to what lies ahead for the stock?
- MarketWatch
Equifax stock ticks higher as results beat Street view
Equifax Inc. shares ticked higher in the extended session Wednesday after the credit information company's results and outlook topped Wall Street estimates. Equifax shares rose 0.4% after hours, following a 0.8% rise in the regular session to close at $154.52. The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $9.2 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with $25.6 million, or 21 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were $1.53 a share. Revenue rose to $905.8 million from $835.3 million in the year-ago quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $1.49 a share on revenue of $896.4 million. Equifax expects adjusted first-quarter earnings of $1.29 to $1.34 a share on revenue of $915 million to $930 million, while analysts had forecast $1.27 a share on revenue of $900.7 million.
- PR Newswire
Equifax Releases Fourth Quarter 2019 Results
Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2019.
- Yahoo Finance
China hack 'doesn't absolve Equifax of being careless,' say consumer groups
The Department of Justice says that China was responsible for the Equifax breach in which over 145 million Social Security numbers were stolen. But that shouldn't let Equifax off the hook.
- Bloomberg
U.S. Aims to Stop Flow of Private Data to China With Charges
(Bloomberg) -- For the last several years, hackers based in China have allegedly been sucking up vast amounts of personal data of U.S. citizens: names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, even fingerprints.On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department took another stab at stopping them.Attorney General William Barr announced that four members of China’s People’s Liberation Army had engaged in a three-months-long campaign to steal information on about 145 million Americans from Equifax Inc. In doing so, Barr detailed an audacious plan that allegedly began with a vulnerability in Apache software and uncovered a mother load of personal data.According to U.S. authorities and cybersecurity experts, the Equifax hack was one of a string of data breaches executed by Chinese hackers in which personal data was stolen. Those experts described an effort to grab so much data on so many people that the Chinese could use it to compile a database of Americans, in part to bolster spying efforts. Chinese officials rejected the accusations. “The Chinese government, military and relevant personnel never engage in cyber theft of trade secrets,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Tuesday.Last year, Barr announced charges against a Chinese national who was part of “an extremely sophisticated hacking group operating in China” that stole information from four large American businesses, including data on 78.8 million people from the computer network of health insurer, Anthem Inc.China has also been linked to a 2018 cyber-attack at Marriott International Inc., yielding data on 500 million guests, and an infamous 2015 incident in which data from the federal Office of Personnel Management was stolen on 21 million individuals, including Social Security numbers and 5.6 million fingerprints.“Chinese spying is over the top increasingly dangerous,” said Jim Lewis, a senior vice president and director of the Technology Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, when asked about the charges involving Equifax. “The PLA has more personal data on Americans than anyone else.”The Equifax hack represents a major “counterintelligence operation” by the Chinese government for future use, including advancing artificial intelligence capabilities, said William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.“They have more than just your credit score,” Evanina told reporters during a briefing on Monday. “They have all of your data.” He added that his biggest concern is that the Chinese will use the data to target people who don’t work in national security and therefore might not be aware of an operation.U.S. officials said there was no evidence the stolen Equifax data was being used. However, Barr said the Equifax hack “fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets and other confidential information.”John Hultquist, senior director of intelligence analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc., said the Equifax incident is “just one example of a shift by Chinese state hackers toward organizations that aggregate data.”“Government bureaucracies, hospitality and travel organizations have been targeted alongside telecommunications firms and managed service providers in intrusions designed to allow access to huge amounts of data and proprietary information,” he said.Cybersecurity experts offered different views on the purpose of the stolen data.The data taken from Equifax may have been used as part of an attempt to compile a database of U.S. personally identifiable information, according to Priscilla Moriuchi, who is director of strategic threat development at the cybersecurity company Recorded Future, Inc. This database can be used for purposes including developing cover identities for Chinese intelligence officers, validating information from other intelligence services, or “building profiles of individuals that may be susceptible to recruitment by Chinese intelligence, “ she said.Ben Buchanan, a cybersecurity expert at Georgetown University, said the data gleaned may have uses such as providing “financial context on targets of interest to China.”“It probably wasn’t too taxing for the hackers to get even this voluminous amount of data, so why not take it?” he said.Aside from allegedly stealing personal data, China has also been accused of pilfering intellectual property from U.S. companies, including by hacking. Former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander, who served under presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, has called it the “greatest transfer of wealth in history.”In 2018, for instance, the U.S. indicted Chinese intelligence officers for stealing technology underlying a turbofan used by airlines while members of China’s Ministry of State Security were charged with targeting government agencies and more than 45 technology companies in the U.S.According to the indictment announced on Monday, the hack at Equifax began in May 2017, maybe earlier, and continued through July of that year. The defendants exploited a vulnerability in Apache software that was used by Equifax’s online dispute portal, where users could research and dispute inaccuracies in their credit reports. Apache had announced a vulnerability in certain versions of its Struts software, and it wasn’t patched on Equifax’s online dispute portal, according to the indictment.Equifax “holds a colossal repository of sensitive personally identifiable information, including full names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates, and driver’s license numbers,” according to the indictment, which alleged that the People’s Liberation Army obtained the names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers for 145 Americans, in addition to the driver’s licenses for at least 10 million Americans, and the credit card numbers and other personally identifiable information on 200,000 U.S. consumers. PLA hackers also obtained personal data belonging to nearly a million citizens of the U.K. and Canada, according to the indictment.Despite major investments in security measures, Equifax appeared to have been compromised “by poor implementation and the departures of key personnel in recent years,” according to a September 2017 story in Bloomberg Businessweek. A congressional report in 2018 found that Equifax failed to modernize its security to match its aggressive growth strategy.On Monday, Equifax Chief Executive Officer Mark Begor said, “Having China indicted for this really changes the stakes for all of us.”“These cyber-attacks are getting more challenging for every company,” he said. “It definitely raises the bar for all of us on what we need to do to defend the sensitive data that we have.”(Updates with comments from China’s foreign ministry in fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Jenny Surane.To contact the reporters on this story: Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.net;Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Martin at amartin146@bloomberg.net, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
U.S. Charges Four Chinese Military Members Over Equifax Hack
(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.The Department of Justice announced charges Monday against four members of China’s People’s Liberation Army for the 2017 hack of Equifax Inc., a breach that exposed the personal information of about 145 million Americans.The announcement by Attorney General William Barr follows an indictment in Atlanta accusing the Chinese military personnel of conspiring with each other to hack into Equifax’s network and stealing sensitive data on nearly half of all U.S. citizens.“This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,” Barr said in a statement. “Today, we hold PLA hackers accountable for their criminal actions, and we remind the Chinese government that we have the capability to remove the internet’s cloak of anonymity and find the hackers that nation repeatedly deploys against us.”Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei, who were members of the PLA’s 54th Research Institute, were charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit economic espionage and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, authorities said.They were also charged with two counts of unauthorized access and intentional damage to a protected computer, one count of economic espionage and three counts of wire fraud, according to the Justice Department. Chinese officials disputed the accusations. “The Chinese government, military and relevant personnel never engage in cyber theft of trade secrets,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Tuesday.In an interview with Bloomberg News, Equifax Chief Executive Officer Mark Begor said that “having China indicted for this really changes the stakes for all of us.”“It definitely raises the bar for all of us on what we need to do to defend the sensitive data that we have,” he said. “We’re in the middle of a very significant technology and security investment because we’re convinced that these attacks are going to continue. And they’re going to be more difficult to defend, and we want to make sure we’re positioned so that this doesn’t happen again to Equifax.”The defendants allegedly exploited a vulnerability in the Apache Struts Web Framework software used by Equifax’s online dispute portal. They used the access to obtain login credentials that could be used to further navigate Equifax’s network and spent weeks running queries to identify the company’s database structure and searching for personal information, according to the Justice Department.The hackers ultimately stored the information in temporary output files, compressed and divided the files and downloaded and exfiltrated the data to computers outside the U.S., according to the Justice Department.“In total, the attackers ran approximately 9,000 queries on Equifax’s system, obtaining names, birth dates and social security numbers for nearly half of all American citizens,” according to a statement from the Justice Department.‘Over the Top’The hackers took steps to evade detection, too, routing traffic through about 34 servers in nearly 20 countries to mask their origin and using encrypted communication channels within Equifax’s network to blend in with normal network activity, authorities aid.“Chinese spying is over the top increasingly dangerous,” said Jim Lewis, a senior vice president and director of the Technology Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “The PLA has more personal data on Americans than anyone else.”It’s the second time in a week that Barr has raised criticism of China’s behavior on technology issues. Last week he gave a speech warning of the threats he said are posed by Chinese technology, focusing on Huawei Technologies Co.’s 5G networks, and saying the U.S. should consider investing in competitors Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB.“Unfortunately, the Equifax hack fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and other confidential information,” he said.Equifax announced in September 2017 that hackers accessed data including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and addresses.Hackers gained access to the Equifax network in May 2017 and attacked the company for 76 days, according to a House Oversight Committee report. Equifax noticed “red flags” in late July, and then in early August contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, outside counsel and cybersecurity firm Mandiant. The company waited until that September to inform the public of the breach.The breach attracted scrutiny from lawmakers in Washington and criticism from consumers and banks, igniting a debate about the role credit bureaus play in lending.(Adds comment from Chinese officials in sixth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Jenny Surane.To contact the reporters on this story: Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.net;Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Martin at amartin146@bloomberg.net, Bill FariesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Equifax (EFX) to Report Q4 Earnings: What's in the Cards?
Equifax's (EFX) fourth-quarter 2019 earnings and revenues are likely to have increased year over year.
- Bloomberg
U.S. Hacking Charges Show China Trade Deal’s Unfinished Business
(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.The Trump administration’s indictment of Chinese military personnel over one of the biggest data thefts in U.S. history highlights a key source of animosity remaining between the two sides after their “phase one” trade deal.The U.S. Department of Justice announced the charges Monday against four People’s Liberation Army members over a 2017 hack of credit reporting agency Equifax Inc., which exposed the personal information of almost half of all Americans. The legal action -- denounced by Beijing on Tuesday -- represented the latest salvo in U.S. efforts to slow what it says are a wave of China-based cyberattacks that have only grown in reach.The charges come at a sensitive time between Beijing and Washington, with the coronavirus outbreak battering the Chinese economy and making it harder for Xi Jinping to the meet ambitious purchasing goals set out last month in his preliminary trade agreement with President Donald Trump. And they point to a problem business groups hope will be part of any follow-up talks: intellectual property theft.“It’s significant in the sense that it’s part of the administration’s China initiative, their broad push against the Chinese theft of intellectual property,” said Adam Segal, director of the digital and cyberspace policy program at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. “But it is unlikely to have any effect on Chinese hacking. The U.S. has indicted PLA hackers before, and it did not change behavior or deter future attacks.”‘Double Standard’The announcement by Attorney General William Barr on Monday followed an indictment in Atlanta accusing four members of the PLA’s 54th Research Institute of conspiring with each other to hack into Equifax’s network. They were charged, among other things, with three counts of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit economic espionage and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang deflected a question about the case Tuesday, repeating the country’s long-held assertion that “Chinese government, military and relevant personnel never engage in cybertheft of trade secrets.” Geng then accused the U.S. of having a “double standard” on cybersecurity, citing the spying revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.The U.S. said the Chinese hackers exploited a vulnerability in the Apache Struts Web Framework software used by Equifax’s online dispute portal to obtain login credentials and navigate the company’s broader network. They obtained names, birth dates and Social Security numbers for some 145 million American citizens.The hack was an example of China’s state hackers diversifying their traditional targets, according to John Hultquist, the senior director for intelligence analysis at FireEye Inc., a global cybersecurity firm.“The Equifax incident is just one example of a shift by Chinese state hackers towards organizations that aggregate data,” Hultquist said. “Government bureaucracies, hospitality, and travel organizations have been targeted alongside telecommunications firms and managed service providers in intrusions designed to allow access to huge amounts of data and proprietary information.”Equifax Chief Executive Officer Mark Begor told Bloomberg News on Monday that “having China indicted for this really changes the stakes” for the company. “It definitely raises the bar for all of us on what we need to do to defend the sensitive data that we have,” Bregor said.Still, the indictment was unlikely to change Chinese behavior, since similar actions in the past have had little effect. In 2014, the U.S. charged five Chinese military officers with hacking American companies and trying to steal trade secrets from American companies including Westinghouse Electric Co.The following year, Xi and then-President Barack Obama agreed that neither government would “conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.” Xi pledged to “strengthen cooperation and avoid confrontation,” he said at the time.Beside the Equifax hack, China has also been linked to a 2018 cyber-attack at Marriott International Inc., yielding data on 500 million guests. There was also a 2015 incident in which data on 21 million individuals was stolen from the federal Office of Personnel Management, including Social Security numbers and 5.6 million fingerprints.In the “phase-one” deal announced last month, China affirmed its commitment to “establishing and implementing a comprehensive legal system of intellectual property protection and enforcement,” without making a new promise on hacking.Barr’s comments represented the second time in a week that he has raised criticism of China’s behavior on technology issues. Last week, he gave a speech warning of the threats he said are posed by Chinese technology, focusing on Huawei Technologies Co.’s 5G networks, saying the U.S. should consider investing in competitors Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB.“Unfortunately, the Equifax hack fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and other confidential information,” he said.\--With assistance from Jenny Surane, Bill Faries and Peter Martin.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.net;Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, ;Andrew Martin at amartin146@bloomberg.net, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Benzinga
Justice Dept. Indicts 4 Chinese Military Members For Stealing Data Of Half Of Americans
The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a “wanted” notice against the accused, including Wang Qian, Xu Ke, Liu Lei, and Wu Zhiyong, who were members of the 54th Research Institute, a component of the Chinese army, according to the federal agency. "The hackers broke into Equifax's network through a vulnerability in the company's dispute resolution system,” the United States Attorney General William Barr said Monday.
- Reuters
China denies engaging in cyber theft following U.S. indictments on Equifax case
China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday the Chinese government and the military do not engage or participate in the theft of trade secrets through the internet. The comments were in response to the U.S. government's indictment of Chinese military hackers in the 2017 breach of the Equifax credit reporting agency. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters during a daily briefing that China is also a victim of U.S. cyber theft, surveillance and monitoring and said Beijing demands the United States stop such acts.
- CBS MoneyWatch
U.S. charges 4 members of Chinese military for massive Equifax hack
"This was one of the largest data breaches in history," Attorney General William Barr said at a press conference.
- TheStreet.com
What Equifax Data Breach Indictment Means for U.S.-China Trade Relations
The Department of Justice indicted the four hackers. This is a negative for a U.S. — China trade deal, according to policy experts.
- PR Newswire
Statement of Mark W. Begor, Chief Executive Officer of Equifax, On the U.S. Department of Justice Indictment Alleging China Carried Out 2017 Cyber Attack
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of four individuals who are members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the People's Republic of China, in connection with the theft of consumer data in 2017. As the indictment states, the cyberattack against Equifax was a state-sponsored operation by a well-funded and sophisticated military arm of the Chinese government.
- TheStreet.com
Equifax Data Breach: U.S. Indicts 4 China Military Members
U.S. authorities have indicted four members of China's military, charging that they hacked into credit-reporting company Equifax and stole trade secrets and Americans' personal data.
