Hundreds of lawsuits filed over data loss

Equifax, the credit reporting firm, is facing more than 240 class-action lawsuits from consumers — in addition to suits from shareholders and financial institutions — over the way it handled a massive data breach that affected 145.5 million Americans.

The lawsuits were detailed in the company’s third-quarter earnings report Thursday, its first since revealing the breach in September.

The incident prompted three top officials to leave the company, including former chief executive Richard Smith.

Equifax also said in its filings that it had received subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia “regarding trading activities by certain of our employees in relation to the cybersecurity incident.”

Shortly after news of the breach broke, reports circulated that top officials had sold Equifax stock after the company found out about the breach, but before disclosing it to the public.

Equifax said this week that it had cleared its executives of wrongdoing after an internal investigation found that the executives did not personally know about the breach before their stock sales.

To date, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has not confirmed or denied that the SEC is investigating those executives for insider trading, according to The Associated Press.

The credit bureau is also facing more than 60 government investigations from states, U.S. federal agencies and the British and Canadian governments, the earnings report revealed.

Equifax estimates that the breach-related costs will total $87.5 million, including the cost of the free credit-monitoring services it provides.

Equifax reported that third-quarter profits were down 27 percent from the previous year.