Equifax agreed to pay at least $650 million in FTC settlement following massive data breach
What happens when the very company responsible for maintaining credit repositories for millions of people fails to protect that data? That’s exactly what happened back in 2017 when major credit bureau Equifax exposed sensitive information on more than 147 million consumers. That historic data breach led to a hefty fine of at least $650 million. The fine represented the largest single settlement for a data breach, both in terms of dollar amount and the number of victims impacted, though that wasn’t enough for some lawmakers.
“In a just world, these executives would be going to jail,” Oregon senator Ron Wyden said in a statement at the time. “No one should be able to collect deeply sensitive information on 200 million people without their consent, treat it with reckless disregard and then just pay a fine when a predictable, easily avoidable hack takes place.”
