Attorney General Jim Hood issued the following statement.
People
affected by the massive 2017 Equifax data breach will receive 10 years
of credit monitoring and may be eligible for restitution following a
$600 million multistate
settlement reached with the consumer reporting agency by attorneys
general across the country, Attorney General Jim Hood announced. The
state of Mississippi will receive $1,399,071.54
of the $175 million going to states, with the remaining $425 million set aside for eligible consumers.
On September 7, 2017, Equifax, one of the largest consumer reporting agencies in the world, announced a data breach,
affecting more than 147
million consumers—nearly half of the U.S. population, including 1.3
million Mississippians. Breached information included Social Security
numbers, names, dates of birth, addresses, credit card numbers, and in
some cases, driver’s license numbers.
“The
worst part about this data breach is that Equifax, as a credit bureau,
knows firsthand how data breaches and resulting identity theft can
impact consumers’ credit; yet,
when they were notified of a problem in their cybersecurity in March
2017, they failed to correct it, allowing highly sensitive information
to be exploited by an intruder through July 2017.” General Hood said.
“We should be able to trust that our personal
information is safe in the hands of an entity like Equifax, but when
that’s not enough, consumers can be confident that I and other attorneys
general will do all we can to require companies to pay up and protect
their customers.”
A
multistate investigation found that the breach occurred because Equifax
failed to implement an adequate security program to protect consumers’
highly sensitive personal information,
which enabled hackers to penetrate its systems. Despite knowing about a
critical vulnerability in its software, Equifax failed to fully patch
its systems. Moreover, Equifax failed to replace software that monitored
the breached network for suspicious activity.
As a result, the attackers penetrated Equifax’s system and went
unnoticed for 76 days.
Under
the terms of the settlement, Equifax agreed to provide a Consumer
Restitution Fund of up to $425 million for consumer redress. The company
will also offer affected consumers
extended credit-monitoring services for 10 years and longer for
affected consumers under the age of eighteen.
Equifax has also agreed to take several steps to assist consumers dealing with identity theft, including, but not limited to:
·
making it easier for consumers to freeze and thaw their credit;
·
making it easier for consumers to dispute inaccurate information in credit reports; and
·
requiring Equifax to maintain sufficient staff dedicated to assisting consumers who may be victims of identity theft.
In addition, Equifax has agreed to strengthen its security practices going forward, including:
·
reorganizing its data security team;
·
minimizing its collection of sensitive data and the use of consumers’ Social Security numbers;
·
performing regular security monitoring, logging and testing;
·
employing improved access control and account management tools;
·
reorganizing and segmenting its network; and
·
reorganizing
its patch management team and employing new policies regarding the
identification and deployment of critical security updates and patches.
Consumers
who are eligible for redress will be required to submit claims online
or by mail. Paper claims forms can also be requested over the phone.
Consumers will be able to
obtain information about the settlement, check their eligibility to
file a claim, and file a claim on the Equifax Settlement Breach online
registry. To receive email updates regarding the launch of this online
registry, consumers can sign up at
ftc.gov/Equifax.
Consumers can also call the settlement administrator at 1-833-759-2982
for
more information. The program to pay restitution to consumers will be
conducted in connection with settlements that have been reached in the
multi-district class actions filed against Equifax, and settlements that
with the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau.
In
addition to Mississippi, other attorneys general participating in this
settlement include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin,
Wyoming, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
13 comments:
WOW!!! That is almost 50 cents for every man, woman, and child in the state of Mississippi! I can't wait to get my check.
one dollar per affected Mississippian
the "settlement" is almost exactly what was set aside unilaterally by Equifax 2 years ago. coinkidink? or something more sinister? we'll never know. just follow the $
How much of this did Hood's trial lawyer- donors receive?
Wonder what the Hood campaign donation from Equifax equaled?
way to go jim!
Self-serving and misleading news. We received our free credit monitoring from Equifax almost 2-years ago.
@4:14, can't be as much as they paid trump to get the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to drop their investigation into Equifax.
He been hanging back on that....
Some Hood donor just hit the jackpot. Jim gets to pay for his car with their campaign donations. Taxpayers get a few cents each.
Hood(wink) just got a bump in his campaign funds.
"Hood gets a million..."
Who came up with this headline? Every state in the USA is getting a piece of this. So it seems obvious that Hood was just doing this job. Maybe he signed his name to the stack of papers. Might have had to sign two or three times. A sad thing to crow about. I have a suggestion for tomorrow's headline:
Hood successfully drives himself to work today.
Tate Reeves - The REAL Howdy Doody.
Post a Comment