IRS suspends Equifax contract: report

The IRS has temporarily suspended a contract it awarded to Equifax, following reports that the company suffered a second data breach, Politico reports.

The $7.2 million contract was for Equifax to verify taxpayers’ identities and help combat fraud.

The incident comes just over a month after Equifax disclosed a massive data breach in which hackers stole the personal information of more than 145 million U.S. consumers. {mosads}

The company has come under massive pressure since revealing on Sept. 7 that hackers breached its systems in May to gain access to Social Security numbers, birth dates and other personal information on millions of Americans. 

According to Politico, the IRS will continue reviewing Equifax’s security systems during the suspension. 

The IRS previously labeled Equifax as a “sole source order,” which means that the agency believes the credit reporting company is the only business capable of providing the service.

Equifax revealed last month that it had endured a massive cybersecurity breach in May, potentially exposing the personal information of almost half of all Americans, including names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

The company endured further criticism in the fallout of the breach after charging individuals to check to see if they were affected and accidentally tweeting a link to a fake website.