美国国家公共电台 NPR Equifax To Pay Up To $700 Million In Data Breach Settlement

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The credit bureau Equifax will pay up to $700 million to consumers over a massive data breach¹ two years ago. That hack² exposed the personal information of about 147 million people. That is more than half the adult population of the entire United States.

NPR's Chris Arnold has been following this and joins us now. Hi, Chris.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE³: Hey, Rachel.

MARTIN: So how much of this money is actually going to go to the people who were hurt or affected⁴ in some way by that data breach?

ARNOLD: Well, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was part of this, says $425 million will be for, quote, "time and money that people spent to protect themselves from potential threats of identity theft or addressing actual incidents of identity theft as a result of the breach."

And we're reading this morning. The settlement just came out, so we're, you know, thumbing through it, learning things. And people could get up to $20,000 each, it looks like, for lost time and money. You have to apply and document what happened. It looks like they're going to pay people $25 an hour for up to 20 hours for dealing⁵ with a whole range of different things - I mean, whether you had your identity stolen and you dealt with that or just...

MARTIN: Right.

ARNOLD: ...Signing up for services. And it's unclear, though, like, how people are supposed to know - well, OK, my identity got stolen. Was it because of this breach? I mean, so there's still some unanswered...

MARTIN: Yeah.

ARNOLD: ...Questions about exactly how that will work. But the goal is to reimburse⁶ people if they got hurt.

MARTIN: How do you actually do that? How do people try to get reimbursed⁷?

ARNOLD: Well, there's a website, like there often is these days. It's equifaxbreachsettlement.com. These things are often difficult to remember on the radio, so I'm going to say it again - equifaxbreachsettlement.com - no spaces or anything. And assuming the court approves the settlement, people can go there and sign up and do everything they have to do. But we should say that people have to do this within six months if they want to get the benefits.

MARTIN: So a settlement for more than half a billion dollars sounds like a whole lot of money. Is this a win for consumer groups? Are they happy?

ARNOLD: I mean, it depends on who you ask. I mean, some advocates say look; this affected so many people - like you said, more than half the adult population of the United States - and the type of information that the credit bureau's track - it's so potentially damaging they say look; this is not enough. You know, it's ridiculous.

Others say $700 million is not an insignificant⁸ amount of money. It's a real bite out of the company's profits. And at least a lot of people are going to get some money back.

MARTIN: Can you just remind us about the breach itself? I mean, there were hearings in Congress when this happened. There were a lot of lawmakers who were very outraged⁹. Why is this breach such a big deal?

ARNOLD: Yeah, I mean, again, first, it's 115 million people, right? So that makes it a big deal. But beyond that, I mean, Equifax affects the financial lives of, you know, almost everybody in this country, right? I mean, it's your credit score. It's your ability to get a mortgage or a car loan.

Companies like this collect data on your financial history. They know if you're paying your bills, how many credit cards you have, what the credit card numbers actually are, your social security number. And this hack exposed that, at least with this one company, they just did not have good enough security. And they're supposed to be, you know, safeguarding all this really sensitive information.

MARTIN: But it's brought up this other issue about what kind of permission people are or are not giving this company, right? I mean, people don't actively¹⁰ sign up for Equifax.

ARNOLD: No.

MARTIN: They can order a credit score, and then Equifax dives into their stockpile of all their personal information.

ARNOLD: Yeah. And, I mean, it's in some ways kind of crazy. This is the way it's evolved. And there are just all kinds of information. They have a dossier, basically, on all of us. We don't give permission, so that's why there's just been so much concern that they're not keeping us safe. We should say they're going to spend $1 billion, though, on cybersecurity as part of this settlement.

MARTIN: NPR's Chris Arnold. Thanks, Chris.

ARNOLD: Thanks, Rachel.

1 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

2 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

6 reimburse   

v.补偿，付还

参考例句：

• We'll reimburse you for your travelling expenses.我们将付还你旅费。
• The funds are supposed to reimburse policyholders in the event of insurer failure.这项基金将在保险公司不能偿付的情况下对投保人进行赔付。

7 reimbursed   

v.偿还，付还( reimburse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Any out-of-pocket expenses incurred on the firm's business will be reimbursed. 由公司业务产生的开销都可以报销。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Employees are reimbursed for any legal fees incurred when they relocate. 员工调往异地工作时，他们可以报销由此产生的所有法律服务费用。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 insignificant   

adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的

参考例句：

• In winter the effect was found to be insignificant.在冬季，这种作用是不明显的。
• This problem was insignificant compared to others she faced.这一问题与她面临的其他问题比较起来算不得什么。

9 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

10 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。