Government Officials Begin Investigating Equifax Breach (thehill.com)

An anonymous reader quotes the Hill: The massive breach of credit rating firm Equifax is attracting scrutiny from government officials across the country. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern over the hack, which could have left vulnerable sensitive personal information for as many as 143 million people. The New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois attorneys general have announced formal investigations into the hack...

The Senate Commerce Committee announced on Thursday that it sent a letter to Equifax seeking answers about the extent of the breach and what Equifax is doing to mitigate its impact. In the House, Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said that his committee would hold a hearing on the hacks at a to-be-determined date. Hensarling noted in a statement that such breaches are becoming "too common" and that consumers "deserve answers." House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said that his committee would hold a separate hearing on the matter as well.

Comments

And I hope but don't hold my breath

[parkinglot777]

that they will find something and some one (or group) who held accountable of the breach. Though, often times, this kind of investigation is just a political stunt to show constituents that they have done something. Nothing will be found, done, or changed according to the history...

Re:And I hope but don't hold my breath

[MitchDev]

Don;t forget most of these government officials have had THEIR data exposed by the breach, otherwise they wouldn't give two sharts about the rest of us....

Isn't 143M basically all adults in America?

[misnohmer]

So their breach just put the entire population at significantly increased risk of identify theft. There definitely should be consequences and the government is the only recourse the consumers have since they are not direct customers of Equifax, nor will anyone ever be able to prove their identify theft was directly due to Equifax's breach, so they cannot individually sue Equifax.

Maybe the fines should be whatever it costs to re-issue new social security (or social insurance in Canada) numbers to everyone, including costs of managing the transition. Yea, I know this may sink Equifax as a company, so be it - lesson for the other guys to secure the data or maybe to not collect it in the first place. Maybe there is such a thing as too dangerous to collect and keep in one company. Kind of like banks and companies that are too big to fail.

Information Circle Jerk

[Arzaboa]

We read daily that the internet functions on our data. We hear constantly, "we are the products, our data is the product."

We are going to hear a million reasons why now this data isn't so valuable. We already see their attempt to flush everyone their "credit monitoring" sham. No one can sue the company in any meaningful way. There are no real remedies that exist for really anyone.

We all do a huge portion of our business online. This hack hits at the true heart of the internet, if we can't figure out who is who, you can not make a transaction. Our internet identities are a very real extension of our physical identities.

This reeks of every single issue that we all see today, from Terms of Service being forced onto folks, one sided contracts that only favor a large company we are forced to deal with whether you want to or not, companies using and selling our data that we have nothing to do with. We are just a commodity, and this really should make everyone feel exactly that.

At what point is having part of us sold and traded ok? Is this where we find out?

Hypocrisy is about to rain down hard. We will not see any meaningful change. We will see all of these folks tell us that in essence, while we can be arrested and profiled online, that our personal data that is essentially "who we are" online, doesn't have the same protections as our person.

Re:Put them out of bussiness

[Dunbal]

Oh there will be a law suit. It will be settled out of court - after all this is the financial industry. Lawyers will walk off with a few tens of millions and affected consumers will get a 5% discount on their next credit check provided they cash in the coupon before the 6 month expiry date.

You still win either way

[goombah99]

I don't care if I get a dime. If the lawyers get it all, but we succeed in anihilating Equifax then I will benefit. All future datebases will take into the account the finincial liability they face if they don't do security right. I win from that. It's not a $10 rebate I want.

Funny thing about credit freezes...

[Cajun Hell]

Credit freezes are hilarious when you think about what they mean.

When I have frozen credit, that means that you can't loan me money without first authenticating me and getting my authorization.

So.. what does unfrozen credit mean?

Things that need to be done

[Ronin Developer]

1. Immediately protect ALL customers by allowing users to lock and unlock their profiles across all the major credit bureaus at ZERO cost the user.
2. Provide lifelong monitoring of profiles and credit activity at ZERO cost.
3. Investigate the insider trading.
4. Remove protections for Equifax against class action lawsuits for any damages that result.
5. Figure out who the F allowed this happen. I am betting an insider did it.

Then, establish a CENTRAL system to coordinate credit activity (but, not have the profiles themselves) so that protection of one's credit is a very simple process.