Following data breach, 36 Senators request investigation into Equifax stock sales

A bipartisan group of 36 U.S. senators recently called for an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission into the sale of approximately $2 million in Equifax securities held by company management prior to the news release of a large-scale network cybersecurity breach.

Last week, a reported cybersecurity breach of Equifax’s network led to an unknown third party having access to the social security numbers, addresses, and driver’s license numbers for approximately 143 million people.

The breach, which is believed to have occurred in May and discovered by company personnel a month later, led to the sale of large amounts of shares from senior company officials, including its President of U.S. Information Solutions, the Chief Financial Officer, and the President of Workforce Solutions.

Information of the breach was finally released to the public on Sept. 7, approximately four months after the breach occurred. However, Equifax stated that the three executives were not aware of the breach when their stock was sold.

“As part of your investigations, we request that you conduct a thorough examination of any unusual trading, including any atypical options trading, for violations of insider trading law,” the senators wrote in a public letter announcing their investigation request. “To the extent that your investigations uncover any information regarding whether Equifax management employed reasonable measures to ensure the security of the now compromised data prior to this cyber breach, we would appreciate your sharing these details.”