“Equifax Can’t Be Trusted” Says Warren After Investigating Equifax Security Breach
The Equifax security breach was one of the worst in history. Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to impost “massive” penalties when companies expose millions of Americans’ information, like in the Equifax hack of 2017.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has said that Equifax cannot be trusted after the 2017 Equifax security breach. She urged Congress to pass legislation which will impose massive and mandatory penalties for security breaches from credit reporting agencies.
Equifax announced last year that a massive breach had allowed hackers to access the information of 140 million Americans which included Social Security numbers, birth dates, credit card numbers and drivers license numbers.
Over a month passed before public announcement of Equifax security breach.
The Equifax security breach was first discovered on July 29 and the company did not make a public announcement until after 40 days on September 7, 2017.
When the public was informed about the breach, many criticized Equifax for attempting to deceive consumers into waiving their legal rights’ to take action against Equifax.
Elizabeth Warren conducts full investigation of 2017 Equifax security breach.
“I spent 5 months investigating the Equifax breach and found the company failed to disclose the full extent of the hack. Today, Equifax acknowledged that 2.4 million more people were affected than initially reported and that driver’s license information was also stolen. Equifax can’t be trusted. Their mistakes allowed the breach to happen, their response has been a failure, and they still can’t level with the public,” Sen. Warren said in a recent statement. “Enough is enough. We have to start holding the credit reporting industry accountable. I have a bill with Senator Warner that would impose massive, mandatory penalties when companies like Equifax expose millions of Americans’ personal information. If we want to prevent another Equifax breach, the Senate should pass it.”
Warren wants massive penalties imposed for credit agency security breaches.
In January, Warren and Mark Warren introduced legislation to impose massive, mandatory penalties for security breaches from credit reporting agencies. According to Warren, Equifax would have to pay $1.5 billion in penalties under the legislation.
On Thursday, Equifax issued a statement, declaring: “Equifax was able to identify approximately 2.4 million U.S. consumers whose names and partial driver’s license information were stolen, but who were not in the previously identified affected population discussed in the company’s prior disclosures about the incident. This information was partial because, in the vast majority of cases, it did not include consumers’ home addresses, or their respective driver’s license states, dates of issuance, or expiration dates.”
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