How Equifax Exemplifies Leadership in Cybersecurity Industry

EQUIFAX IS COMMITTED TO SECURITY COLLABORATION, TRANSPARENCY AND KNOWLEDGE-SHARING. We publish annual security reports, webinars and other resources to help businesses and consumers understand cyber threats and how to protect themselves. 

Actively sharing best practices can better ensure we are all better prepared for whatever comes our way. An example of this sharing is working to build a thriving community of crisis communicators — where we share strategies, successes, and lessons learned.

Ashley Korte, Equifax’s Sr. Director of Global Crisis Management, recently participated in P World’s Crisis Communications Boot Camp where top crisis communicators within the industry gathered to learn from each other and to create better strategies for dealing with crises in the future.

“Despite the fact that we all know cyber crises are huge threats, there aren't many companies or PR leaders willing to share their lessons learned. Equifax and Ashley's sessions have been an invaluable source of knowledge and have provided a platform to discuss strategies to navigate cyber crises. Ashley's insights have helped many attendees better prepare themselves for similar events in the future,” said P World’s CEO, Kosta Petrov.

Equifax’s EVP and Chief Information Security Officer, Jamil Farschi, emphasizes that security shouldn’t be a secret. 

“We can’t solve today’s cyber challenges without talking about them and collaborating with one another,” Farshchi said. “If we want to change the trend line of successful attacks—if we want to make our companies and communities more secure—we need more communication, more collaboration, and more transparency in security, not less.”

To help other organizations across the U.S., Farshchi was appointed as a Strategic Engagement Advisor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2022. In this role, he supports the FBI’s efforts to strengthen their relationship with the private sector and supports the Bureau in addressing the range of cyber threats facing businesses across America.

Since 2018, Equifax has transformed our organization at every level, investing $1.5 billion in technology and security to build the Equifax Cloud. Almost every aspect of the Equifax security program has been completely overhauled in the last five years, and we are extremely proud of the incredible progress that we have made toward embedding security into everything we do – from our technology infrastructure, data fabric, and product development, to our merger and acquisition strategies, to our incentive compensation plans.

“I wish that more organizations, such as Equifax, were willing to share their lessons learned and inspire others to become better crisis communicators,” Petrov said. 

To learn more about how Equifax shaped the future of cybersecurity in 2022, check out our Security Annual Report.