Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a former Equifax executive with insider trading, alleging that he profited from confidential information about a data breach at the company that compromised sensitive data of 143 million people to make a profit.
Jun Ying, former chief information officer of a U.S. business unit of Equifax, faces both civil and criminal charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
Equifax, a major consumer credit reporting agency, disclosed last year that hackers had obtained sensitive information, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth, for 143 million people. The breach began in May and was discovered by the company on July 29.
According to the SEC complaint, before the breach was made public, Ying exercised all of his Equifax stock options, reaping a profit of nearly $1 million and avoiding losses of more than $117,000 in losses.
(c) 2018, The Washington Post · Renae Merle
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