In a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Representative Katie Porter (D-CA) asked whether Equifax CEO Mark Begor would be willing to share his address, birth date, and Social Security number publicly at the hearing.
Begor declined, citing the risk of “identity theft,” letting Porter criticize Equifax’s legal response to the 2017 security breach that apparently exposed almost 150 million people’s data of that sort to an unknown intruder. The company had unsuccessfully asked a judge presiding over a class-action suit over the breach to dismiss it, saying the plaintiffs hadn’t “sufficiently alleged injury and proximate causation” to bring suit, as Yahoo Finance reported late last month.
Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. denied the request, saying there is precedent for the notion that Equifax had a duty to take steps to protect the data.
So far, it’s unclear who took the sensitive records from Equifax, and how, if it all, the ill-gotten data has been used.
You can watch the video in the embedded tweet below:
Begor, speaking to Congress, declined to delve into the legal reasoning in the case.
Incredible questioning of Equifax CEO by @RepKatiePorter now
asks him to provide his SSN and birthdate in public hearing
he declines, stating potential for harm
asks “Why are Equifax’s lawyers arguing in court that there was no harm” from data breach?
— Chad Loder ❁ (@chadloder) February 26, 2019
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
