Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution • Hacker News Board

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#11

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 9:00 AM UTC

martin1975 wrote: post #2

well nearly 30 class action lawsuits have been filed against Equifax... If they come out on the other side any other way but in a proverbial corporate coffin, it would truly be a miracle. The thing to look out for, and call me paranoid if you wish, is now to "rectify" the problem, government or corporations (or both), now start to demand rfid biochip implants as a reliable means of authentication..... or transacting…

> If they come out on the other side any other way but in a proverbial corporate coffin, it would truly be a miracle

The stock market appears to disagree with you.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#12

Post by ewanm89 » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 10:40 AM UTC

1) US government should cancel all contracts with Equifax,

2) US government should demand a list of all effected SSNs

3) US government should use pre-breach tax data to issue replacement SSNs to all affected and send Equifax the bill for doing this.

3) US governments should ask the courts to consider any use of a breached SSN on any credit issued after breach date to not be enough evidence alone for any credit recovery processing (basically nullifing any credit after the breach for an affected SSN without the Banks being more careful with regards to identity checks).

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#13

Post by pdimitar » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 12:03 PM UTC

Individual liability of all the shot-callers. When you have to worry about jail and losing your yacht, you'd be more vigilant.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#14

Post by kd5bjo » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 12:32 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #3

> a lawsuit in state court to dissolve a corporation Couldn't they just re-incorporate the next day in another jurisdiction. Or it implies that the state can force them to sell all the assets, lay off all the workers, and return the money to creditors. Well in either case, it is a nice fantasy. Doubt anything like that would happen. Even worse, after nothing happens, everyone who deals with such data will watch and l…

Most states reserve the right to seize property involved in the commission of a crime. In this case, that could potentially include all their servers and data backups.

Not that I expect that to happen, though.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#15

Post by bostik » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 12:41 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

bowlich wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a "corporate death penalty" why would the state need to concern itself with the notion of shareholders to begin with? Loss of stake would merely be a part of the penalty. There's certainly precedent outside of the US for nationalization of corporate resources.

> There's certainly precedent outside of the US for nationalization of corporate resources You can’t just take shareholders’ stuff because you don’t like what management did. More directly, protecting property rights is a cornerstone to our multi-century economic success.

But you can forbid any government body to do business with them. And you can extend that by forbidding government bodies from doing business with any companies that in turn do business with the particular bad egg.

In case of Equifax, that would probably amount to a public execution.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#16

Post by revmoo » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 1:17 PM UTC

Every single dollar of EFX's market cap, still is not enough to pay for the damage they have negligently inflicted on the American people. They need to be immediately siezed by the government, their assets liquidated, and a victim's fund to be created with the proceeds. It's not even enough, but it's a start.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#17

Post by infogulch » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 3:36 PM UTC

ewanm89 wrote: post #12

1) US government should cancel all contracts with Equifax, 2) US government should demand a list of all effected SSNs 3) US government should use pre-breach tax data to issue replacement SSNs to all affected and send Equifax the bill for doing this. 3) US governments should ask the courts to consider any use of a breached SSN on any credit issued after breach date to not be enough evidence alone for any credit recove…

Except for the first #3 (counting is hard) I agree with all of these.

I just don't think it's practical to reissue millions upon millions of SSNs. We need a more permanent and secure system than SSN entirely.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#18

Post by bobwaycott » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 5:58 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

bowlich wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a "corporate death penalty" why would the state need to concern itself with the notion of shareholders to begin with? Loss of stake would merely be a part of the penalty. There's certainly precedent outside of the US for nationalization of corporate resources.

> There's certainly precedent outside of the US for nationalization of corporate resources You can’t just take shareholders’ stuff because you don’t like what management did. More directly, protecting property rights is a cornerstone to our multi-century economic success.

Perhaps if shareholders lost or were at risk of losing their stuff, they’d take much more interest in what management did, and demand avoiding behaviors that would increase that risk.

It is bad for society when a corporation can engage in socially damaging activity, and then those involved—including shareholders who are profiting from the behavior—are insulated from experiencing the loss.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#19

Post by martin1975 » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 9:34 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #11

martin1975 wrote: post #2

well nearly 30 class action lawsuits have been filed against Equifax... If they come out on the other side any other way but in a proverbial corporate coffin, it would truly be a miracle. The thing to look out for, and call me paranoid if you wish, is now to "rectify" the problem, government or corporations (or both), now start to demand rfid biochip implants as a reliable means of authentication..... or transacting…

> If they come out on the other side any other way but in a proverbial corporate coffin, it would truly be a miracle The stock market appears to disagree with you.

For now.

Re: Equifax's failure calls for judicial dissolution

#20

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 9:47 PM UTC

bostik wrote: post #15

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's certainly precedent outside of the US for nationalization of corporate resources You can’t just take shareholders’ stuff because you don’t like what management did. More directly, protecting property rights is a cornerstone to our multi-century economic success.

But you can forbid any government body to do business with them. And you can extend that by forbidding government bodies from doing business with any companies that in turn do business with the particular bad egg. In case of Equifax, that would probably amount to a public execution.

That’s fine, and I think it should be encouraged. I also think they should be fined, held liable for money damages in court, and that their executives should be investigated with the potential of resulting in jail time. You have to find ways to take the money from the company, however, not directly from the shareholders.