Today’s Equifax News Beyond Troubling, Investigations an Important Step

States, Congress Should Make SecurityFreezes Free

Illinois PIRG

Statement by Abe Scarr, Illinois PIRG Director, on news that Equifax failed to fix its security vulnerabilities.

“The Equifax breach was already so bad for so many reasons. Reports today that Equifax failed to install Apache Struts security updates it was told about two months before its breach are beyond troubling.

Investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and state Attorneys General are important steps in holding Equifax accountable to consumers who had no choice to be in a relationship with them to begin with. Potential criminal wrongdoing should also be investigated. Illinois law requires corporations that collect and store records including private personal information “implement and maintain reasonable security measures to protect those records.” Today’s news raises serious questions about whether Equifax met that standard.

Even with everything the Equifax breach has brought to light, many in Congress are trying to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and get rid of protections, including our right to a day in court with companies like Equifax. Protecting consumers is not a left-right issue, it’s a little guy – big guy issue.

We’re recommending that consumers get security freezes with all three credit bureaus. We’ve called on Equifax to pay for all those freezes, but consumers shouldn’t wait for that. Yesterday we joined with seven other consumer advocacy organizations to support legislation introduced in Illinois to make security freezes free for all Illinoisans. We call on congress to make security freezes free for everyone in the country.”

More information about placing credit freezes is available at http://uspirg.org/reports/usf/why-you-should-get-security-freezes-your-information-stolen