While most of the day on Wednesday, former Equifax chairman and CEO Richard F. Smith testified before members of Congress on Capitol Hill, one little nugget of information surfaced that surprised many present.
Equifax, itself at the center of the biggest breach of personal information, signed a contract with the federal government to provide -- personal information. The contract was signed weeks after word of the company's massive data breach was made public.
The Internal Revenue Service signed a $7.25 million no-bid contract with the Atlanta-based firm on September 30.
In early September, Equifax revealed it had a breach of its data systems by hackers who accessed or stole information on 145 million Americans.
News of the contract was first reported by Politico on Tuesday. The contract is for Equifax to provide the IRS with taxpayer and personal identity verification services. The contract stated that Equifax was the only company capable of providing these services to the IRS, and it was deemed a "critical" service that could not lapse.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
