Capitol Hill Weighs In On Equifax

September 14, 2017

This week Capitol Hill weighed in heavily on the Equifax breach which reportedly affected more than 143 million customers.  There were several letters from Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate. 

 

The Senate Commerce Committee sent a letter to Equifax CEO Richard Smith inquiring of the scope and response to the breach.  Democrats from the House Energy and Commerce Committee also sent a letter expressing concern and inquiring of the company’s response.  The leadership of the Senate Finance Committee sent Mr. Smith a letter highlighting the potential impact on federal services requiring personally identifiable information.

 

Meanwhile, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission regarding its probe of the breach.  Additionally, twenty Democrat Senators weighed in on their dislike of the initial use of arbitration on the free credit monitoring and identity theft service offered by Equifax’s third party provider TrustedID.  Another group of Senators sent a letter to the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation of reports that senior Equifax executives sold Equifax securities within days of the breach.

 

Congressional hearings are also expected on the breach.  The first scheduled hearing will occur at the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Oct. 3rd and feature testimony from Mr. Smith.