The Unfinished Business of the Equifax Hack
Congress needs to address the failures of credit reporting.
Nice credit you have there. Pity if something happened to it.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergRemember the Equifax breach? In late 2017, the credit-reporting company revealed that hackers had stolen the personal data of more than 145 million people — including Social Security numbers, addresses, and in some cases even credit-card details. The incident was remarkable not only in scale, but also for the scant regard the company apparently showed for the individuals whose sensitive information it was supposed to manage.
Almost a year and a half later, almost nothing has changed. Authorities have neither sanctioned Equifax nor addressed the deeper industry-wide flaws that the incident exposed. It’s an omission that Congress must correct.