Warren Says Equifax Can't Be Trusted, Pushes 'Massive' Penalties For Data Breaches
WASHINGTON (CBS/CNN) – Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is blasting Equifax in the wake of its announcement that its data breach affected more people than originally reported.
Cybercriminals penetrated Equifax, one of the largest credit bureaus, in July and stole the personal data of 145 million people. It was considered among the worst breaches of all time because of the amount of sensitive information exposed, including Social Security numbers.
The company only revealed the hack two months later. And in a new development Thursday, Equifax said that 2.4 million more customers had their names and driver's license information stolen.
"Equifax can't be trusted. Their mistakes allowed the breach to happen, their response has been a failure, and they still can't level with the public," Warren said in a statement. "Enough is enough. We have to start holding the credit reporting industry accountable."
I spent 5 months investigating the #EquifaxBreach, and found the company failed to disclose the full extent of the hack. Today, @Equifax acknowledged that 2.4 million MORE people were affected than initially reported. https://t.co/XAY9nLKqYM
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 1, 2018
Warren and Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner introduced legislation in January that would enforce penalties for credit companies whose data was stolen.
She said that under her proposal, Equifax would have been fined at least $1.5 billion.
"I have a bill with Senator Warner that would impose massive, mandatory penalties when companies like Equifax expose millions of Americans' personal information," Warren said. "If we want to prevent another Equifax breach, the Senate should pass it."
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. CNN contributed to this report.)