West Virginia Sues Equifax Over Data Breach

West Virginia sued Equifax Inc on Thursday for failing to safeguard consumer information of hundreds of thousands of state residents and for delaying alerting the public to a breach that exposed the personal data of about 148 million people, the state’s attorney general said. The attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, said he filed the lawsuit in Boone County Circuit Court. It was the second lawsuit filed by a state attorney general since Equifax disclosed the breach in September.

“Equifax’s failure to secure consumers’ personal information constitutes a shocking betrayal of public trust and an egregious violation of West Virginia consumer protection and data privacy laws,” Morrisey said in a statement.

Equifax did not immediately respond to a request for comment.