Massachusetts Kicks Off State Lawsuits Against Equifax Over Massive Data Breach
by ZeroPointNow
Sep 13, 2017 4:35 PM
Content originally published at iBankCoin.com
Consumer
credit reporting agency Equifax has already been hit with over 30
lawsuits over what may be the largest breach of sensitive information in
U.S. history – at least 23 of which are class-action filings, and all
of them representing individuals.
On Tuesday, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey – a Democrat who in March led the state in suing the Trump administration over
the travel ban – announced her intent to take Equifax to court, the
first such lawsuit from a state prosecutor’s office over a data
breach which has affected up to 143 million Americans. “In all of our
years investigating data breaches, this may be the most brazen failure
to protect consumer data we have ever seen,” said Healey.
In
a press release, the Mass AG’s office is claiming that Equifax did not
“maintain the appropriate safeguards to protect consumer data,” which is
a violation of state consumer protection and privacy laws.
While
Equifax offered people a free credit monitoring service which initially
waived the right to sue the company, they later clarified that
customers could sue if they sent Equifax written notice within 30 days.
Yesterday, the company said that use of the free credit monitoring
service does not waive the right to take legal action.
Via CNN:
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the clarification came as a result of conversations with his office.
“The
victims of this breach shouldn’t also have to worry that they’ve waived
their legal rights simply because they were trying to protect
themselves. That’s why my office reached out to Equifax last week about
the terms of use,” he said in a statement.
Schneiderman’s office is currently investigating the breach, as are attorneys general in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Illinois.
Regulators
and investigators across the country have already begun to dig into the
scope and disclosure of the hack – including safeguards and procedures
Equifax had in place prior to the attack. The NY AG’s office begun an
investigation into the breach last week, along with the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau and the FBI.
Setting sale before the storm
Separate of the lawsuits, a bipartisan group of senators called
upon federal prosecutors to investigate stock sales by three Equifax
executives before the company publicly disclosed the hack, generating
nearly $2 million in proceeds shortly after the breach was detected.
SEC
filings show that Equifax CFO John Gamble sold $946,000 worth of shares
on Aug 1, while two other executives sold shares and exercised options
worth nearly $850,000.
The lawmakers, led by senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Jack Reed (D-RI) is asking the SEC and the FTC to look into the sales.
“As
part of your investigations, we request that you conduct a thorough
examination of any unusual trading, including any atypical options
trading, for violations of insider trading law,” the senators wrote. “We
request that you spare no effort in your investigations and in
enforcing the law to the fullest extent against anyone who is found to
be at fault.”
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