BOSTON (Legal Newsline) — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced Sept. 12 that her office intends to sue Equifax Inc. due to its alleged failure to protect sensitive and personal information of roughly three million consumers in the state.
“In all of our years investigating data breaches, this may be the most brazen failure to protect consumer data we have ever seen,” Healey said. “My office is acting as quickly as possible to hold Equifax accountable for the risks that millions of consumers now face.”
Following a major data breach at Equifax, a credit reporting firm, the information of 143 million consumers nationwide was compromised. Healey’s office is investigating the scope of risk to consumers and whether the company had proper safeguards in place to avoid data breaches.
Healey’s office intends to allege that the company violated state consumer protection and data protection laws and regulations and failed to maintain the proper safeguards needed to protect Massachusetts consumers. Healey sent a letter to Equifax notifying it of her office’s intent to sue.