Brnovich among the 32 AGs examining Equifax data breach

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined attorneys general from 31 other states to send a letter to Equifax calling for the credit-monitoring company to disable enrollment in its fee-based credit-monitoring service.

The office also will join other states in examining the impact on Arizonans.

As of 2 p.m. Friday, Equifax offered free theft protection and credit monitoring for the millions of people whose personal information was exposed in a massive data breach.

However, the company also still allowed customers to purchase a paid version of the monitoring service.

“Consumers, who are at absolutely no fault in this situation, should not have to pay for credit monitoring services,” said Brnovich in a statement. “We believe continuing to offer consumers a feebased service in addition to Equifax’s free monitoring services will serve to only confuse consumers who are already struggling to make decisions on how to best protect themselves in the wake of this massive breach.”

The letter comes after Equifax’s much-criticized response upon disclosing a hack of customer data, which included personal information such as Social Security numbers for approximately 143 million people, on Sept. 7.

The company told the public about the breach more than a month after discovering the leak.

The attorney general said his office had created a team to investigate the hack, as well as its impact on Arizona residents.

“As soon as this breach was disclosed, my office mobilized and opened an investigation,” Brnovich said. “We want to know about the circumstances that led to the breach, the reasons for the monthslong delay before public disclosure, and what protections the company had in place at the time of the breach.”

The 32 state-level investigations will take place alongside several federal fact-finding missions, including one by the Federal Trade Commission.

At least one class-action lawsuit for victims of the data breach has also been filed, by a firm in Oregon.