ATLANTA, July 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced a new partnership with the Center for Identity at The University of Texas at Austin that will help students and researchers develop deeper understanding of real-world identity management issues.

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Equifax, which offers identity theft protection products through its Personal Solutions unit, joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IBM, LexisNexis, Texas Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Secret Service and a host of other well-respected entities as partners with the Center for Identity. Strategic partners help the Center shape and prioritize its research and educational pursuits.

"This partnership is a natural fit because Equifax strives to provide consumers with insights and information they can trust and use about their credit and identity," said Susan Mauldin, Chief Security Officer at Equifax. "Every year, data breaches and cyber attacks become more prevalent and we want to find ways to better educate the public on how to protect themselves. Our partnership allows us to provide the Center with resources to deepen their research and educational pursuits."

Under terms of the partnership, Lyn Chitow Oakes, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Equifax Personal Solutions, will serve on the Center's board of advisors.

The Center was created in 2010 by The University of Texas at Austin to serve as a center of excellence and point of authority for identity management, privacy and security. The Center aims to partner with experts from a variety of disciplines so it can advance identity research and education and solve the identity challenges that impact personal security, commerce, government services and national security.

"This partnership with Equifax brings us high-caliber expertise to contribute to the Center's multidisciplinary research and education programs that address critical identity management challenges," said Suzanne Barber, the Center's Director. "We look forward to collaborating with Equifax on those research programs and working alongside Lyn Chitow Oakes and her team."

About Equifax
Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce information solutions that provide businesses of all sizes and consumers with insight and information they can trust. Equifax organizes and assimilates data on more than 600 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide. The company's significant investments in differentiated data, its expertise in advanced analytics to explore and develop new multi-source data solutions, and its leading-edge proprietary technology enables it to create and deliver unparalleled customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 19 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index. Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. In 2014, Equifax was nominated as a Bloomberg BusinessWeek Top 50 company; its CIO was listed as one of the top 100 by CIO magazine; and the company was named to the Fintech 100 list, was recognized as a top 20 company to work for by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and was named a 2014 InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.

About The University of Texas at Austin Center for Identity
The Center for Identity is a national center of excellence, bringing together researchers and scholars from across UT Austin's top-ranked schools and programs in Business, Communications, Law, Public Affairs, Engineering and Computer Science to focus on issues related to identity management, privacy and security. Leveraging the resources of The University of Texas at Austin and those of its public and private sector members, the Center forecasts threats and delivers solutions that define and protect identity in physical and cyber environments.

To learn more about the Center and identity theft, fraud, and privacy solutions, visit identity.utexas.edu.

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SOURCE Equifax Inc.