{"id":7902,"date":"2019-07-23T13:29:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T17:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/?p=7902"},"modified":"2020-04-20T11:11:03","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T15:11:03","slug":"big-breach-leads-to-bigger-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/big-breach-leads-to-bigger-compensation\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Breach Leads to Bigger Compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What is your identity worth?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following extensive state and federal investigations, a settlement was reached this month regarding the notorious Equifax breach.\u00a0 To compensate for the millions of individuals affected by the 2017 data break, the credit reporting agency has agreed to provide $300 million worth of monitoring services to affected consumers and $175 million to settle legal disputes with 48 states.\u00a0 If it is determined, however, that the $300 million amount for services is not enough, then there is a stipulation stating the amount will increase another $125 million.\u00a0 Equifax must also pay a $100 million fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. \u00a0In addition, the company must update and enhance their data security, to avoid any future computer-oriented crimes from taking place.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a result of the Equifax data breach, an expected 145 million Americans are potentially placed at risk of identity theft.\u00a0Equifax serves as a credit reporting agency, and following the breach, millions of Social Security, driver\u2019s license, and credit card numbers of consumers were compromised.\u00a0 Other pieces of identifiable information taken in the breach were names, birth dates, and addresses.\u00a0 Despite the initial cyber-attack in March 2017, the Atlanta, Georgia based company claims to have only discovered the breach on July 29, 2017.\u00a0 The public<\/a> was then notified in September 2017.\u00a0 According to several claims, hackers tapped into a hole in Equifax\u2019s company portal, where they were able to access the sensitive information.\u00a0 Allegedly, Equifax employees were aware of the hole, but failed to act promptly to fix the issue.<\/p>\n

Due to the company\u2019s negligence, Equifax is being held responsible in more ways than one.\u00a0 Not only does the company have to pay a hefty fine and settlement that will reach $700 million, but the business side of Equifax is suffering.\u00a0 CEO Richard Smith retired under pressure, leaving the company in September 2017.\u00a0 The stock of the company also tanked, affecting the financial stability of the company.\u00a0 Perhaps the most important effect of the breach, however, is the risk to the identity of the individual consumer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following extensive state and federal investigations, a settlement was reached this month regarding the notorious Equifax breach.\u00a0 To compensate for the millions of individuals affected by the 2017 data break,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[396,1037,2659,108,524,12],"class_list":["post-7902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-settlements","tag-business-2","tag-consumer-protection","tag-data-breach","tag-identity-theft-2","tag-lawsuit","tag-settlement"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7902"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8250,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7902\/revisions\/8250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}