Equifax to pay $600m settlement over data breach

Credit reporting giant Equifax has been fined $600m by New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, in what is the largest ever settlement over a data breach.

James co-led a coalition of 50 attorneys general in reaching the settlement, as a result of an investigation into the company’s massive 2017 breach which exposed the personal information of half of the United States population.

Equifax announced the breach at the time, which affected more than 147 million consumers, or 56% of American adults, making it one of the largest-ever breaches of consumer data in history.

Affected information included social security numbers, names, dates of birth, addresses, credit card numbers, and in some cases, driver’s license numbers.

The Attorney General said she secured a settlement with Equifax which included a Consumer Restitution Fund of up to $425m, a $175m payment to the states, and "significant" injunctive relief for consumers.

“Equifax put profits over privacy and greed over people, and must be held accountable to the millions of people they put at risk,” Letitia James said in her statement.

“This company’s ineptitude, negligence, and lax security standards endangered the identities of half the US population.

"Now it’s time for the company to do what’s right and not only pay restitution to the millions of victims of their data breach, but also provide every American who had their highly sensitive information accessed with the tools they need to battle identity theft in the future,” she added.