Three Equifax executives sold company stock in the days after hackers exploited a vulnerability in the credit agency’s software and stole the credit data of 143 million Americans.
Three Equifax executives rushed to sell off company stock worth $1.8 million just days after the breach was discovered in August.
Exquifax has been hacked in the past, but the latest data breach which ran from May to July is the largest ever to hit the credit agency.
The company revealed the extent of the cyberattack in a press release on Thursday.
The cyberattack exposed sensitive credit information of 143 million Americans, including credit card numbers, social security numbers, addresses, etc.
Lawyers for Chief Financial Officer John Gamble, Rodolfo Ploder and Joseph Loughran, claim their clients were not aware of the data breach when they sold their stocks in August.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the company said the executives “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares.”
Equifax stock dropped 13 percent during after hours trading on Thursday. The stock fell from $142.72 on Thursday afternoon to $123.94 by 1:10 p.m. on Friday.
You are urged to call your credit card company if you believe your credit card information was compromised by this hack. Class action lawsuits could bankrupt Equifax to the tune of $1,000 per customer.
Customers who signed up for Equifax’s credit monitoring service may be exempt from joining a class action lawsuit.
