Minnesota Senator Al Franken is among those grilling former Equifax Chairman and C-E-O Richard Smith about a major data breach during hearings in Washington D-C today. Smith told lawmakers the cause was a combination of human error and technology failure. Franken asked, “Why is the security of 145 million Americans’ personal information all in the hands of one guy?” Smith responded, “This one guy was responsible for the patching process. He had a team underneath him. He did not communicate and ensure a closed-loop process.” Franken interrupted, “That doesn’t change that it’s up to one guy.”
Franken is sponsoring legislation he says will hold data brokers accountable for what they do with Americans’ personal information.