Hackers will try to steal all the credit

Have you seen officers of the People’s Liberation Army acting suspiciously near Equifax’s customer database? One is a silhouette. Another wears geek-chic specs and a uniform two sizes too big. If you have spotted either, contact US attorney-general William Barr. He would like to talk to them about the theft of the personal data of 147-million Americans in 2017.

Of course, the US government has no hope of catching the duo, pictured in an official release, along with two other officers charged. Instead, the legal flourish supports the US government’s message that Chinese espionage is omnipresent — so do not trust Huawei.

The charges also give US-based credit-checking agency Equifax some belated cover for the hack. Quoted businesses are expected to battle one another by legitimate means. The world’s largest military is a more daunting adversary. However, Equifax’s defences were woefully weak, as US politicians and security consultants pointed out. The hack hit confidence in the business, number two behind UK’s Experian. The pair were previously neck-and-neck in their market ratings.

High ratings for credit checkers reflect network advantages and the steep margins that come with them. But their huge volumes of personal and corporate data also make them tempting targets for hackers.

Data theft is only a medium-level threat. The bigger worry is that credit checkers and Western financial institutions may be exploited as vectors to distribute malware across millions of organisations. These bugs could be used to crash systems simultaneously.

Lex likes big credit checkers as a long-term bet. But the risks of these stocks are steeper than the market acknowledges. As the scrap between the US and China intensifies, so will commercial espionage against highly connected businesses of all kinds. /London, February 11