IRS awards Equifax no-bid, $7.25 million contract after hack

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Just because your resume says you exposed the personal data, including Social Security numbers, of some 143 million Americans while practicing unsafe security, it doesn't mean you can't score a multi-million dollar contract with the Internal Revenue Service. That's the case even if your name is Equifax and you're being contracted by the IRS to "verify taxpayer identity" to combat fraud.

The $7.25 million no-bid contract to Equifax was posted the last day of the fiscal year, Saturday, on the government's Federal Business Opportunities database. It was awarded Friday, three weeks after Equifax announced what Ars has described as "very possibly the worst leak of personal info ever." According to the posting, Equifax will "assist in ongoing identity verification and validations" for the IRS.

The contract was a "sole source order." That means the IRS has determined that Equifax was the only company deemed capable of performing the contract, according to Politico. The IRS, which did not immediately respond for comment, said in the contract posting that "this is considered a critical service that cannot lapse."

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