Corporate Governance and Equifax's Data Breaches

Case Study
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
Overview of the case..............................................................................................................5

PART 1............................................................................................................................................5
Concept of corporate governance...........................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................7
Evaluate the approaches of case from perspective of most relevant normative and descriptive
business ethics theories...........................................................................................................7
PART 3..........................................................................................................................................10
Analyse the stakeholder perspective on business behaviour................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Corporate governance is defined as combination of regulations, rules, laws and processes
that helps in running of business effectively. This is a term which encompasses external as well
as internal elements that affects interest of stakeholders of an organisation. This can include the
impact on customers, government, suppliers, management and employees. Basically, board of
directors of company are developing framework for corporate governance which aligns
objectives of the business in an effective manner (Jacoby, 2018). There are specific processes
which are outlined in the corporate governance and this consists of action plans, disclosure
practices, performance measurements, compensation decisions, dividend policies, etc. The
present case is an example of the corporate strategy which includes Equifax’s Data Breaches.
Overview of the case
Equifax is among the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies within US. The
case happened in September 2017 in which the system of this company got breached and
personal data about more than 140 million Americans was compromised. The breaching included
data of customers like home address, names, social security numbers, date of births, license
numbers, etc. The biggest loss was the detail related to credit card of approximately 209,000
customers and clients. This breach was considered as high severity. There are different scandals
that occur in past but this included sensitivity of personal information by Equifax. This case was
case that diminished the company's goodwill and reputation within market.
PART 1
Concept of corporate governance
The corporate governance is defined as system of practices, rules, processes and
regulations that are helpful for firms in controlling and directing different business activities and
tasks. The corporate governance consists of balancing interest of stakeholders, executives,
customers, government, suppliers, financiers, etc. of the organisation (Hussain, Rigoni, and Orij,
2018). A good corporate governance provides framework for achieving organisational objectives
and goals. There are rules, regulations, policies, controls, resolutions which are put into place for
dictating corporate behaviour. There are two main stakeholders who directly affects governance
such as proxy advisors and shareholders. A key component for investor relation and community
in communication of corporate governance of the firm. Generally, all companies have are