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MAXINE WATERS:
"THESE DATA BREACHES
ARE DEEPLY TROUBLING"
e House Financial Services Committee
held a hearing titled "Who's Keeping Score?
Holding Credit Bureaus Accountable and
Repairing a Broken System." e hearing is
especially important in light of the data breach
of mortgage information that was reported
recently.
e hearing, which was held in two parts,
saw the committee discussing the current credit
bureau reporting system and how that was
impacting consumer credit scores in the first
part. e second part of the hearing focused on
regulation that could make the credit reporting
system more secure and consumer-friendly.
"is hearing with the testimonies of
the CEOs of the three major credit bureaus
is long overdue," said Rep. Maxine Waters,
Chairwoman of the House Financial Services
Committee in her opening statement.
Waters pointed out that in 2017, Equifax
experienced a data breach of personally
identifiable data of approximately 148 million
individuals, "around half of all Americans."
She said that in 2015, Experian discovered
a breach that affected 15 million consumers
"who applied for T-Mobile service, and in 2013,
all "three credit bureaus being represented
at the hearing—Equifax, TransUnion, and
Experian—had identified unauthorized
access to sensitive data relating to high profile
individuals."
"ese data breaches are deeply troubling
because credit bureaus collect reams of
information on millions of Americans," Waters
said. "e more information they collect, the
more people are at risk when that information is
not properly protected. Even worse than credit
bureaus' vacuuming up of consumer data is the
lack of control that consumers have over this
data."
Additionally, Waters said that they would
also discuss two key legislation, one that is
intended to "repair the existing system by
shifting the burden of removing mistakes from
credit reports onto to credit bureaus and another
to protect consumers who get affected by a
Federal government shutdown from having their
credit damaged."
"While these are all critical reforms to the
