Slashdot Mirror
Equifax Hit With 'Dozens' of Lawsuits from Shareholders and Consumers -- Plus a Possible Class Action (chicagotribune.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post:
Since it announced a massive data breach earlier this month, Equifax has been hit with dozens of lawsuits from shareholders, consumers and now one filed by a small Wisconsin credit union that represents what could be the first by a financial institution attempting to preemptively recoup losses caused by alleged fraud the hack could cause... In the lawsuit, which seeks class action status, Madison-based Summit Credit Union says that financial institutions will have to bear the cost of canceling and reissuing credit cards as well as absorbing the cost of any fraudulent charges. They will also lose "profits because their members or customers were unwilling or unable to use their credit cards following the breach," according to the lawsuit...
"For financial institutions it is important: They bear the financial responsibility for identity theft," said Summit's attorney Stacey Slaughter of the law firm Robins Kaplan. "All of the components that would allow someone to create a new identity" were exposed in the Equifax hack.
Equifax responded that they can't comment on pending litigation, according to the article, though "Equifax has said it did its best to respond to the breach and alerted consumers as quickly as it could..."
"The company's stock price has fallen 27 percent since it announced the hack September 7."
"For financial institutions it is important: They bear the financial responsibility for identity theft," said Summit's attorney Stacey Slaughter of the law firm Robins Kaplan. "All of the components that would allow someone to create a new identity" were exposed in the Equifax hack.
Equifax responded that they can't comment on pending litigation, according to the article, though "Equifax has said it did its best to respond to the breach and alerted consumers as quickly as it could..."
"The company's stock price has fallen 27 percent since it announced the hack September 7."
Good.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"Equifax has said it did its best to respond to the breach and alerted consumers as quickly as it could..." - You mean Equifax alerted consumers as quickly as they could after their executives sold their shares...
Pitiful. Hope they go outta business.
> "Equifax has said it did its best to respond to the
> breach and alerted consumers as quickly as it
> could..."
And by "as quickly as it could", Equifax means that they view sitting on the breach and keeping the public in the dark while the C-levels sell off their stock as being legitimate.
Imagine all the people...
"For financial institutions it is important: They bear the financial responsibility for identity theft," said Summit's attorney Stacey Slaughter of the law firm Robins Kaplan. "All of the components that would allow someone to create a new identity" were exposed in the Equifax hack.
It is not my job to securely guard my name, address and social security number. It is, in fact, impossible to secure it. It is the bank's responsibility to make sure they lend to the right person. Banks can not lend to any one claiming to be A and hold A responsible for default.
If they lend to B and report A is in default, A should be able to sue the banks for libel.
The root cause of this identity theft market is the willingness of the banks to lend without doing full verification of the identity. If banks won't lend so easily, then there is no reason for people to steal identity. Banks want to lend freely, without any verification. They make us prove we did not borrow the money and we were victims of identity theft. It should not be our responsibility.
In fact they won't be able to collect in court if they sue us. The only weapon they have is to report us to be in default. Well, we need to take that weapon away from them. They should not be able to report default without first proving they lent to the person they allege to have defaulted on loans.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
"The company's stock price has fallen 27 percent since it announced the hack September 7."
Surprised it is still at 73% of old price. I would like it to go bankrupt and take the entire credit reporting industry down with it.
We need to make both the banks, and the credit reporting agencies responsible for any fraudulent information they might publish. Claim A is in default of a loan, without proof that it was A who actually borrowed, bank should be liable for libel. Report the bank's claim, the credit reporting agency should be held accessory after the fact, aider and abettor. That is the only way to clean up the mess.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
This is why suing Equifax into oblivion is not enough because then the company and shareholders, not the executives responsible for the lack of security, suffer. What is needed are criminal charges against those in charge of this fiasco. It sounds like there is already an investigation into insider trading but what is really needed is charges related to data protection but I don't know if US law allows for that like it does in the EU and Canada.