Data breach: Equifax faces $70bn lawsuit

As nearly half of the US population fell victim to a massive cyber fraud at credit reporting agency Equifax, a Democratic Senator has called for a probe while a class-action lawsuit seeking up to $70 billion in damages has been filed against the company.

Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin requested the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the Equifax hack which exposed the sensitive personal data of 143 million US citizens, New York Post reported late on Friday.

Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the company’s website application from mid-May through July and gained access to consumer information including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and in some instances, driver’s license numbers, Equifax earlier said in a statement.

The breach also included credit card numbers of approximately 209,000 consumers and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information of approximately 182,000 consumers.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Mary McHill and Brook Reinhard, who had their personal information stored by the company, filed a complaint in the Oregon federal court against Equifax, seeking up to $70 billion in damages, vanityfair reported.

Equifax discovered the breach on July 29 but alerted the people only on September 7 after three senior executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million, the report added.