Equifax recently compromised the personal identifying information of at least 145 million Americans but, on the very last day of the fiscal year, the IRS contracted Equifax to help them police identity.
A contract award for Equifax's data services was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities database Sept. 30 — the final day of the fiscal year. The credit agency will "verify taxpayer identity" and "assist in ongoing identity verification and validations" at the IRS, according to the award.
The notice describes the contract as a "sole source order," meaning Equifax is the only company deemed capable of providing the service.
The Senate Finance Committee has already announced an investigation into the rewarding of a no-bid contract to Equifax, and for good reason. No-bid contracts are often suspect even when they don't involve the personal information of hundreds of millions of people.
The IRS has defended the decision by saying Equifax assured them that none of their data has been compromised, but I for one am not assured. How do we know that? In what confidence can Equifax say that?
After Equifax publicly announced the breach last month, they directed consumers to a fake phishing site for two weeks.