New Mexico to get about $2.3M from Equifax settlement
Money comes after 2017 data breach that affected more than 147 million consumers
The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office hailed a massive national settlement with Equifax over a 2017 data breach, saying a latticework of restitution funding and requirements for improvements to the credit reporting company’s security practices will serve consumers well.
The nation’s 50 attorneys general announced the agreement Monday with Atlanta-based Equifax that includes up to $425 million in monetary relief to consumers and $175 million that will be split among the states. New Mexico’s take — separate from the consumer restitution fund — will be about $2.3 million.
Matt Baca, a spokesman for Attorney General Hector Balderas, said that money will go toward data security investigation and consumer protection efforts in New Mexico. “In terms of the monetary settlement, the attorney general is very satisfied,” Baca said. “He’s also satisfied that it came with injunctive terms. It will result in consumer protections alongside monetary recovery.”
The breach, announced by Equifax in September 2017, affected more than 147 million consumers, with about 860,000 living in New Mexico. Information included Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth, credit card numbers and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers.
It was one of the largest breaches ever to threaten Americans’ private information. Equifax didn’t notice intruders targeting its databases, who wormed through a security flaw the company hadn’t fixed, for more than six weeks. The resulting scandal led to the dismissal of Equifax’s then-CEO and other company executives.
Baca said the money from the Equifax settlement will flow to the Attorney General’s Office’s Consumer Settlement Fund, which has made up between 40 percent and
50 percent of the office’s operating budget in the past several years.
Consumer advocates were generally positive on the settlement but had concerns about its time scale. Claims can only be filed for the next four years, but since the thieves stole permanently identifiable information like Social Security numbers and birthdates, the data could be used for decades to commit identify theft.
“What happens if a consumer is the victim of ID theft in the fifth year resulting from the breach, which costs the consumer tens of thousands of dollars?” said Chi Chi Wu, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.
On Monday, Equifax’s stock price closed at $137.84, not far from the $141.45 price it was trading at just before the breach was disclosed. Business analysts say the settlement will remove a cloud of uncertainty over the company.
But it also underscores that U.S. consumers are still at the mercy of credit-reporting companies when it comes to protecting crucial personal details. Equifax and competitors such as TransUnion and Experian remain the primary repositories of the data that banks use to make credit decisions.
Under the terms of the settlement, Equifax will provide a consumer restitution fund up to $425 million, with $300 million dedicated to redress consumer losses, according to the Attorney General’s Office. If the initial $300 million in the fund is exhausted, the company will be required to contribute an additional $125 million.