In 2017, consumer credit rating giant Equifax suffered one of the country's largest data breaches, exposing the personal information of 147 million U.S. citizens, or roughly 40% of the population, to hackers.
The breach led to a record settlement with the FTC, a dramatic downgrade in Equifax’s own credit rating, and close to $3 billion in expenses for the company as it restructured both its C-suite and data practices, including dishing out $1.4 billion in settlement payments.
