2017, American consumer credit reporting agency Equifax revealed that foreign hackers had been illegally accessing its systems for more than four months, and had stolen the full names, social security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and driver’s-license numbers of nearly 150 million Americans and 15 million residents of the United Kingdom. Two years later, Equifax agreed to a settlement of $650 million—a sum less than the company’s annual cash flow and which provided victims only a few dollars each. Multiple
