The Negative Lottery: Equifax and the Lost Art of Risk Management

Author: David Stockdale

Date: December 11, 2017

Link: https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/negative-lottery-equifax-and-lost-art-risk-management

First Impression: What I can say by just looking at the title is not much, but probably The Negative Lottery refers to something that people are unaware of, but still participate since the reward is high and Risk Management meaning that people do not know how to calculate risk since they just join in anytime, just for the benefits.

Quote: “Data is now more valuable than oil”

Reflection: 

We give our data to companies not only because we want to have access to their services or the feedback we hear from peers, but also because of the trust that we have for them when handling our data. We expect them to have the most robust security since numerous people use their services, and other companies do not offer the same protection as they do, but when something happens, say, for instance, a data breach. People should be able to resort to a backup plan so that they would be prepared for anything. The company should also be able to provide reimbursement to the customers affected by the data breach. Since data has been exposed, one must be ready for the possibility of identity theft and have a backup plan on what to do in case of someone that is pretending to be you. 

5 Things I Learned

1. Data is now more valuable than Oil.

2. When you are a victim of identity theft, you are put in a position of having to prove who you are to a greater extent than the criminal.

3. A company still profits even after it commits a mistake.

4. It is easy to impersonate a real website once hacked.

5. Patch must be checked for vulnerabilities before deploying it to a system.

5 Integrative Questions

1. Did Equifax do anything to its customers after suffering a massive data breach?

2. How is Equifax one of the Big Three credit reporting agencies after getting a data breach?

3. What are the consequences that Equifax will face?

4. After everything that happened, why do they still have this kind of power?

5. What can Equifax do to mitigate its risk?