Record #: Or2017-502   
Type: Order Status: Failed to Pass
Intro date: 10/11/2017 Current Controlling Legislative Body: Committee on Finance
Final action:
Title: Call for Corporation Counsel to file cause of action to hold Equifax Board of Directors liable for acts or omissions contributing to 2017 Equifax data breach
Sponsors: Burke, Edward M., Solis, Daniel
Topic: CITY DEPARTMENTS/AGENCIES - Law
Attachments: 1. Or2017-502.pdf
Related files: R2019-362
ORDER


WHEREAS, the City of Chicago is a home rule unit of government pursuant to the 1970 Illinois Constitution, Article VII, Section 6(a); and
WHEREAS, pursuant to its home rule power, the City of Chicago may exercise any power and perform any function relating to its government and affairs including the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, "safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, a board of directors has an ordinary duty to take care not to injure third parties and has a duty of loyalty to the corporation to act in a reasonable manner to oversee policy and management of executives; and
WHEREAS, as practically every aspect of private and public business is conducted and stored on virtual networks and warehouses, data breaches are occurring more frequently and with more potentially disastrous repercussions; and
WHEREAS, "hacks" and data breaches have a near constant strong hold on news headlines as cybercrime afflicts nations and industries throughout the globe; and
WHEREAS, for example, in 2013, the retail giant Target had its systems breached by a cyber-attack that affected more than 41 million customer payment card accounts, causing Target to pay out $18.5 million in settlement fees; and
WHEREAS, in 2014, Home Depot's systems were breached and 50 million cardholders were affected, resulting in Home Depot agreeing to pay at least $19.5 million to compensate those individuals; and
WHEREAS, Equifax is a consumer credit reporting agency that collects and aggregates information on over 800 million individual consumers and more than 88 million businesses worldwide; and
WHEREAS, Equifax then sells this information to third parties in the form of consumer credit reports, insurance reports, and other consumer demographic and analytics information; and
WHEREAS, Equifax also markets and sells its credit protection and identity theft monitoring services to the consumers whose personal information Equifax collects; and
WHEREAS, Congress enacted the F...

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