San Francisco Sues Equifax

Adding this week to Equifax’s list of unhappy individual and groups to deal with — a list that already includes its banking partners, Congressional legislators and the 143 million or so people whose data has been compromised — is San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who has filed a lawsuit against Equifax.

The city’s contention? The credit reporting firm’s massive data breach constitutes Equifax failing to protect the data of (15 million) Californians.

“Equifax’s incompetence would be comical if the subject matter weren’t so serious,” Herrera said in a prepared statement. “This company fell asleep at the switch and upended the lives of millions of people.”

The breach has carried in its wake a host of  investigations at the state and federal level. The Department of Justice in Atlanta, where Equifax is based, and the Federal Trade Commission have both been brought in to evaluate the case and Equifax’s responsibility in it.

“The information that Equifax failed to safeguard is what people need to open a bank account, buy a home or rent an apartment,” Herrera said. “Now Californians have been put at risk of identity theft for years to come.”

The lawsuit — filed in San Francisco Superior Court — accuses Equifax of breaking “state law governing unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business practices,” according to Herrera’s office.

Herrera’s office further accuses Equifax of failing to implement security procedures and practices that might have fended off the breach, for failing to tell Californians in a timely manner about the breach and then not for offering up complete data when the breach was discovered.

“When you’re dealing with highly sensitive information, keeping your software up to date is such a basic step,” Herrera said, adding the company’s delay in informing users about the breach “made a bad situation worse.”

“Their delay prevented more than 15 million California consumers from taking immediate action to protect themselves from the risk of identity theft and fraud,” he said.