What Equifax owes us all

Americans still reeling from a security breach for the ages — 143 million sensitive-as-hell personal files stolen from credit-rating giant Equifax — have gotten a kick in the teeth to follow the punch to the gut. Equifax, like two other rating giants, knows every loan and credit card bill you’ve paid late, and assigns a score that lenders used to determine how much you can borrow, and at what rate.

It also knows things like the name of your first boyfriend, the street you grew up on and other answers used to verify you are who you say you are.

That motherlode of information was, of course, an irresistible target to hackers from who knows where, one that the company protected with security that proved outrageously weak.

Then came insult atop injury: An awful corporate offer to provide free credit monitoring for a year — but still profit off failure by charging for a credit freeze, the one step identity-theft experts say is absolutely necessary in the wake of a breach.

That Equifax lifted the charge to offer free 30-day freezing Monday is small consolation. To protect themselves, consumers must get their scores frozen at all three agencies; the other two still charge. So, Equifax: fund free freezing.

Then Congress must put the execs — including three who sold stock after the breach was discovered — on the hottest of hot seats.