ATLANTA–In the wake of its giant data breach, Equifax reported it has incurred $87.5 million in related costs to date and it continues of face more than 200 lawsuits, including from credit unions.
The Indiana league and the Credit Union Association of the Dakotas said last week said they would be the latest to join a CUNA-led lawsuit against Equifax.
Equifax disclosed in September 2017 that hackers had penetrated its security to extract the personal information of as many as 145.5 million Americans, including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers.
The company reported that the reputational and financial costs caused its third-quarter profits to fall to $96.3 million, down 27% from Q3 2016. It’s third quarter sales, however, were actually up to $834.8 million, but they fell short of analysts’ expectations.
“We recognize that we have an important journey in front of us to regain the trust and confidence of consumers and our business customers,” Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., the company’s interim chief executive, said in a statement.
Equifax reported it is facing more than 240 lawsuits seeking class action status, as well as investigations from numerous of regulatory and law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, in announcing it was joining the CUNA-led lawsuit against Equifax, Credit Union Association of the Dakotas CEO Jeff Olson said, “Nearly one third of North Dakotans and one quarter of South Dakotans were impacted by the Equifax breach. That means more than half a million Dakotans are at risk for fraud.”
The CUAD added that this type of high-level type of breach, such as the Equifax breach, highlights the need for tougher state-level and federal data protection cybersecurity standards.
“Simply put, what we’re doing on the legislative and regulatory cybersecurity front is not working, especially when it comes to protecting members’ and consumers’ personal information,” says Olson. “What is even more concerning with this type of breach is that the personal information of credit union members who have ever taken out a loan, mortgage, rented an apartment, or even purchased a cell phone, will be at risk for years, and consistently the response from organizations like Equifax are slow, inadequate, and absolutely unacceptable.”
The CUAD represents 77 credit unions in North and South Dakota.