Equifax - the trustworthy credit bureau?

September 12, 2017, just a day after the 9/11 memorials across the country, hurricanes in the south lands, earthquakes in Mexico, and human misery abounding. So what comes skipping merrily across the news wire?

EQUIFAX HACK

So, the oldest and one of the largest credit 'reporting' bureaus (Wikipedia about Equifax) experienced a hack. 

A hack in some circles means code breaking a program, in others it may mean social engineering to gain a password.

NO WAY IN HECK DOES A HACK MEAN A MAJOR MELTDOWN INTRUSION INTO A NETWORK WHICH OCCURS FOR ALMOST 3 MONTHS, 'UNDISCOVERED' UNTIL ALMOST 5 MONTHS LATER WITH RECORDS ON 144 MILLION PEOPLE TAKEN!!!

We have legislation on gender equality and gender identification - to some these are big issues. Mystery of mysteries, in the 21st century, business is not taking security and intrusion seriously? Especially credit reporting bureaus? 

IT Administrator hat goes on:  securing your networks means investing time and money (yes Equifax - M-O-N-E-Y - you have enough - net profit of $488 million in 2016) in hardening servers, group policies, managing web front and back ends, and hardening passwords (even if the staff DO NOT LIKE IT!). AND will anyone be held accountable?

Heck, these 'hackers' - seriously that should read THIEVES - could do us all a real favor by reversing all the credit ratings - those at the bottom go to the top, those at the top go to the bottom, and maybe there would be less worry and criticism of their affairs!