Anger But No Action After Equifax Breach ⇥ politico.com

Martin Matishak, Politico:

Some industry leaders and lawmakers thought September’s revelation of the massive intrusion — which took place months after the credit reporting agency failed to act on a warning from the Homeland Security Department — might be the long-envisioned incident that prompted Congress to finally fix the country’s confusing and ineffectual data security laws.

Instead, the aftermath of the breach played out like a familiar script: white-hot, bipartisan outrage, followed by hearings and a flurry of proposals that went nowhere. As is often the case, Congress gradually shifted to other priorities — this time the most sweeping tax code overhaul in a generation, and another mad scramble to fund the federal government.

If you think those invested in Equifax’s trustworthiness and reputability would have punished the company, there’s bad news there, too: the stock has regained over 50% of the value it lost in the days after Equifax announced that they had been breached, and it’s basically flat compared to the same time last year.

The mountain of lawsuits directed at Equifax is, sadly, the biggest chance consumers have at getting the company to pay for their incompetence — “sad” because these lawsuits are very expensive and, had proactive legislation been in place already, completely unnecessary.