[20171101]LSB10024_数百起Equifax数据泄露诉讼已经提起他们的机会有多大？.pdf

CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Hundreds of Equifax Data Breach Lawsuits Have Been FiledWhat are their Chances? November 1, 2017 The recent data security breach of Equifax, one of the three main credit reporting agencies, has already spawned scores of federal lawsuits, as individual consumers, financial institutions, and state and local governments have all filed suit against the company. These cases involve a wide variety of federal and state claims, raising a host of legal issues that may more broadly inform Congresss consideration of cybersecurity law going forward. The impetus for the bevy of lawsuits against Equifax was a data breach that compromised sensitive consumer information (e.g., names, birthdates, Social Security numbers) for over 145 million Americans. The breach, which occurred in mid-summer and was reported by Equifax in September, stemmed from the exploitation of a vulnerability that the credit reporting agency was made aware of in March 2017. (For more details on the breach itself, see this testimony from CRS cybersecurity analyst Chris Jaikaran). Since the breach, over 200 lawsuits have been filed against