Another ex-Equifax employee is charged with insider trading related to data breach
Hacking can lead to significant corporate fines, such as the $700 million Equifax paid for a 2017 incident, but the threat to business performance runs deeper, making cybersecurity a top ESG factor.

Another former Equifax employee is facing insider trading charges.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday they charged a former software development manager, Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, with insider trading. He is scheduled for arraignment Thursday by a federal magistrate in Atlanta. The charge came nearly four months after the former chief information officer of an Equifax business unit was accused of similar charges.

Prosecutors said the insider trading against Bonthu related to the massive data breach last July that Equifax disclosed to the public in September. The breach affected the records of 143 million people, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed separate civil charges against Bonthu on Thursday.

Bonthu, 44, was fired in March after refusing to cooperate with an internal investigation into whether he had violated the company's insider trading policy. The SEC says Bonthu worked on creating a website for consumers who were affected by the breach. He had been told the work was for a client but surmised it was for Equifax itself, and in the days before the breach became public he placed a bet in the options market that Equifax shares would fall.