EDITORIAL: Don’t wait for someone else to protect your data

Sept. 21--Our credit scores determine whether we will be allowed to buy a car, a home or even that new, more expensive iPhone. Landlords run credit checks before deciding to rent an apartment. Employers often do the same before deciding whether to make a job offer. Insurers base their premium charges in large part on credit ratings.

In short, you are nothing in America if you are not credit-worthy.

That's what makes the Equifax data breach -- and the company's cavalier, cynical response to it -- all the more alarming. This is a disaster that could affect the lives of millions of Americans for years to come, and at this early juncture there is little confidence the company has the desire to truly address the problem. Meanwhile, lawmakers have promised investigations and legislation, and state attorneys general -- including Maura Healey of Massachusetts -- have sued the company. Those measures may spur needed changes in the long term, but they do little to assuage worried consumers.

For now, at least, we are on our own.

Here's how we got here: Equifax, which along with TransUnion and Experian is one of the nation's three major credit reporting agencies, announced the massive data breach earlier this month, laying the blame on "hackers" but providing little information on what happened. What is certain, however, is that the breach exposed the highly personal data of as many as 143 million Americans. That's almost every adult in the country. The data include Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and birth dates -- the very information we are told to guard with our financial lives.

Equifax discovered the data breach earlier this summer, but the company waited six weeks before bothering to tell the public their information was at risk. In the meantime, several executives quietly unloaded shares in the firm -- before the stock price plummeted.

Once the news became public, Equifax offered consumers "free" short-term credit monitoring. Anything past a year, and consumers would have to pay -- and remember, the ramifications of this breach are likely to be felt for years to come. In signing up for the monitoring, consumers would have had to give up their right to sue the company. Bowing to public outrage, the Equifax removed that provision, and will also offer the credit monitoring for free.

But the damage is done, and the company's intentions are clear: Protecting its executives and bottom line is vitally important. Safeguarding your information and financial future? Not so much.

So what can be done?

Credit-reporting bureaus are lightly regulated compared to other parts of the financial industry. The chairmen of two congressional committees say they want to hold hearings on the matter, and a handful of lawmakers are hawking plans that would mandate tighter controls and larger fines for companies that don't protect our personal information.

Legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren would give control over credit and personal information to consumers and prevent credit reporting agencies from profiting when consumers ask that their information be frozen. Sen. Edward Markey, meanwhile, has signed on to a bill that would give consumers the right to stop data brokers from selling personal information for marketing purposes.

Even if these bills became law, the changes would be years in the making and would do nothing to mitigate the damage done by the latest breach.

It is important for consumers to act now to protect their financial future.

The Federal Trade Commission offers an excellent how-to on the issue on its website at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do. Among its suggestions: -- Visit the Equifax website to determine if your information was exposed; -- Check your credit reports from all three of the major reporting agencies; -- Consider placing a credit freeze on your files; -- Closely monitor your credit card and bank account statements; -- File your taxes early, as soon as you get your tax information.

If all this sounds like a giant hassle, well, it is. But Americans must act to protect their private information because it is becoming increasingly obvious companies like Equifax have little interest in doing so.

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(c)2017 The Salem News (Beverly, Mass.)

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