Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 670 posts

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#191

Post by g051051 »

hedora wrote: post #17

I'd love to see the $70B number pan out (though $500 per person is less than the damages, I think) -- Equifax is a $17B company, and would presumably stop existing if that happened. On the other hand, these things always settle out of court, and Equifax certainly won't settle the suit for more than they're worth. I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in smal…

Are you kidding? This is a 100% instant dismissal if it even gets to a judge. The allegations are groundless...the plaintiffs have no knowledge of Equifax's security systems in order to have any sort of standing to make any claims regarding the quality of it.

The sad truth is you can do everything right to the best of your ability and still get hacked. So just the fact that they were hacked isn't sufficient evidence that they were negligent.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#192

Post by ajross »

CoachRufus87 wrote: post #26
spinlock wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, the best outcome would be to put Equifax out of business. I have had my identity stolen and they were complicit in enabling the fraud against me. Once you tell them you're NPI has been compromised, they get incredibly passive aggressive against you and refuse to allow you to manage the situation (i.e. they won't let you unlock your credit to apply for a mortgage). In short, this breach of public "trust" is only…

> they won't let you unlock your credit to apply for a mortgage So how do you recover from something like that? Are you basically prevented from using credit for the rest of your life?

There are legal limits to how long the data can be stored for. (I want to say it's a federal 7 year limit, but I might be wrong and it might be state laws). Eventually it all times out and your credit resets.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#193

Post by rwmj »

eduren wrote: post #9

>In the complaint filed in Portland, Ore., federal court, users alleged Equifax was negligent in failing to protect consumer data, choosing to save money instead of spending on technical safeguards that could have stopped the attack. Doesn't "users" imply that we had a choice in the matter? As if we're Equifax's customers? I feel more like we're victims in this case.

I had a problem signing up for a mobile phone contract a while ago. The mobile company eventually told me that Equifax were supplying them with (my) information which was slightly different from what I was saying about myself, so I called up Equifax. To "fix" things, Equifax wanted me to send a notarised copy of my passport to them (at my expense!)

Of course I told them to get lost and just used another mobile provider, but I learned from this episode that all of these consumer services companies share data both ways with these credit checking agencies.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#194

Post by dhimes »

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #121
billh wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This class action will likely be settled in the same way the Ticketmaster case was settled ... with a coupon book good for 2 free credit reports.

To be fair, class action suits aren't really about recovering damages for the class members. Or at least, not entirely. That's almost incidental. Rather, they're most often about leveraging a large class of injured parties--whose injuries are usually relatively minor on an individual basis--to force a change of behavior by adding up all of those small injuries. The cost of pursuing each claim individually would usual…

To be fair, class action suits aren't really about recovering damages for the class members. Or at least, not entirely.

That was exactly what they were supposed to be about. The way it usually works out, however, is that the lawyers don't really negotiate on the same side of the table as the class and the class members end up with very little. The lawyers, however, get their fees.

That's why everybody gets pissed about it.

There are other legal remedies to force a change of behavior. If the lawyer wants to use my name (as a class member) for leverage in the suit, he or she should be representing me. The class action is something that is supposed to be for the class members' advantage- working as a group for legal remedy. The tradeoff is you don't get as much legal remedy as you may have had you footed the entire bill and risk of a lawsuit yourself. But some of the negotiated remedies are, indeed, a joke.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#195

Post by i_cant_speel »

hueving wrote: post #184
flatline wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've ever opened a bank account or a line of credit you signed something to the effect that you agreed to let your institution share your data with these agencies.

That doesn't make you a user. It just means the bank gave them your info.

After you made the choice to allow them to.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#196

Post by jedberg »

pc86 wrote: post #183
gbarc888 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Undoubtedly Equifax will claim that the hackers were agents of a sovereign power, to escape liability. Regardless, they admitted on their own web page that there was a flaw in their web application. Biometrics would be a terrible idea. Mass surveillance, anyone?

I was not aware the citizenship of the hackers had any bearing on Equifax's liability in this case.

If it's a foreign government it's considered and "act of god", (I.e. Something out of their control) which releases a lot of liability.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#198

Post by jldugger »

jlarocco wrote: post #181
thaumaturgy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the ones who do have their identities stolen will likely be made whole by the credit card companies. Are credit card companies now in the habit of reimbursing consumers for the considerable time and headache required to sort out fraudulent charges caused by insecure data storage practices in the credit reporting agencies that the credit card companies contract with? There are numerous reports of identity fraud…

> Are credit card companies now in the habit of reimbursing consumers for the considerable time and headache required to sort out fraudulent charges caused by insecure data storage practices in the credit reporting agencies that the credit card companies contract with? It's not a "habit", it's the law. It doesn't matter how the fraudulent charges came to be. If a person disputes a charge and has evidence to show it's…

> It's not a "habit", it's the law. It doesn't matter how the fraudulent charges came to be. If a person disputes a charge and has evidence to prove they didn't make it, then by law the credit card company has to investigate, and deal with it.

But the time it takes on the phone to talk to an agent, review your records for legit vs illegit charges, etc. are not reimbursed, which is what they were on about.

> Why would the bank or credit card company send a check?

I think we're talking Target writing the check. Which they didn't exactly volunteer to do, but was covered in the class action at least: https://targetbreachsettlement.com/mainpage/CommonlyAskedQue...

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#200

Post by balls187 »

gknoy wrote: post #105
Chaebixi wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in small claims court. If ~15% of the class does this, they are out of business, and lawyers don't get a dime of the $1000. IANAL, but can't you only sue for actual damages not hypothetical damages? According to this [1] your identity with SSN is only worth $30 on the black market. To get $1000 out of them you'd probab…

The damage is not the cost of getting a new SSN, but the cost of verifying that your info is safe (still safe?). This is why companies routinely list the _cost_ of dealing with hacking incidents (scrub all the servers, pay people overtime, etc). I think it's fair to assign costs similarly for equifax.

Info monitoring is what, like $29.99 a month?

Perhaps reasonably ask for 3 years of monitoring, so $980

But those aren't actual costs incurred yet.

Post reply on HN