ATLANTA–Financial institutions, including credit unions, are urging a federal court here to deny a bid by Equifax to have their claims tossed in a multidistrict lawsuit related to the company’s enormous 2017 data breach.
Banks and credit unions that are plaintiffs in the suit against the credit bureau said the company is responsible for increased risks of banking fraud and damage to the entire credit reporting system.
The hacking of Equifax’s systems was “arguably the most damaging data breach in the nation’s history,” the plaintiffs said in a filing. “Each plaintiff has already spent time and money to mitigate what experts universally acknowledge is a substantial risk of future fraudulent banking activity.”
As CUToday.info reported here, the records of approximately 145.5 million people were compromised, including email addresses, tax ID numbers, driver’s license information, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, credit card numbers and other information.
The breach, which began on March 10, 2017, was caused by the company’s failure to patch the Apache Struts web application that hackers exploited.
More than 100 lawsuits have been filed.