Democrats on House panel urge Equifax to extend protections
WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers on a House investigative panel are asking Equifax Inc. to provide its free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for at least three years.
Equifax has offered up to one year of complementary protections after the massive data breach last year that compromised personal information for about 145 million Americans.
But the Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee argue that identity thieves often wait much longer to act on stolen information.
The lawmakers say the company’s chief information security officer told committee staff in a briefing last October that data thieves would likely wait a year or more before attempting to sell the data on the black market.
The lawmakers are making their request in a letter to Equifax’s interim chief executive.