CI briefings - Why attributing China to the Equifax breach matters

Earlier this month the DoJ indicted four PLA officers for the EQUIFAX breach of 2017 which placed information on more than half the population of the U.S. into Chinese intelligence hands.

Given financial stability is one of the prime reasons for clearance denial and makes up the vast majority (almost half) of all appeals on clearance adjudication. This topic should be a part of every CI Briefing for those whom have clearances and/or aspire to have one.

I pulled together four areas to focus on in “Four Counterintelligence Reasons Why the Equifax Breach is Troublesome”

What other areas of concern should be included as a result of China’s attribution to the Equifax breach?

It’s quite an interesting set of circumstances that I have considered since these data breaches occurred. It’s not that hard to connect the dots and it doesn’t matter who actually committed each breach. I had figured for sometime that the Equifax data had ended up in some state’s hands. China and Russia were the leading candidates.

Yes, the Chinese having both the DoD data and the Equifax data makes it pretty easy to merge and get financial information on many or all cleared personnel. Yes, there is danger of recruitment but there is also the danger of data insertion to cause massive amounts of trouble for those with clearances. One way to break a system is overload it well beyond capacity. Continuous Evaluation makes this even easier. Imagine what happens when 50,000 cleared individuals suddenly appear to be in trouble with their mortgages.

Thanks for the “sick think” analysis - you are absolutely correct - “What happens when 50,000 cleared individuals suddenly appear to be in trouble with their mortgages.” Mayhem will ensue.

It’s not always what is taken

1 Like

Well . . . It’s always been one of my magical powers . . . You should hear some of the things that I have predicted this way that have come to pass . . .

1 Like