Equifax has agreed to pay up to $700 million to settle state and federal investigations into a 2017 data breach, The Washington Post reports. The breach exposed the Social Security numbers, credit-card information, and other private data of more than 147 million people. The case left more than half of U.S. adults vulnerable to identity theft. The penalties include payments to consumers, regulatory fines, and changes to the credit-reporting agency's practices.
"This is the largest data breach settlement in U.S. history," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. "These data breaches occur because of corporate greed. Corporate leaders decided to put an extra dollar of profit into their pocket, as opposed to that dollar going into the infrastructure of the company to protect their data." Equifax did not immediately comment.
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