Equifax Promises A New Lifetime Service, As New Leader Offers An Apology

Equifax is promising consumers new control over access to their personal credit data — for free, and for life — as interim CEO Paulino do Rego Barros Jr. apologized to people affected by the company's recent data breach. He said the company had failed to live up to expectations.

"On behalf of Equifax, I want to express my sincere and total apology," Barros wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.

In the piece published behind the Journal's online paywall, but that doesn't seem to have been reproduced on Equifax's own site, Barros also unveiled plans for a new credit-monitoring tool:

"By Jan. 31, Equifax will offer a new service allowing all consumers the option of controlling access to their personal credit data. The service we are developing will let consumers easily lock and unlock access to their Equifax credit files. You will be able to do this at will. It will be reliable, safe and simple. Most significantly, the service will be offered free, for life."

The new service, Barros said, is aimed at disrupting the cybercrime business and easing consumers' worries — as well as helping the company recover from what has been a disastrous incident.

Barros was named interim CEO this week, after Equifax's former chairman and CEO Richard F. Smith retired. The consumer credit reporting company has been criticized for a series of missteps that compounded consumers' frustration after the company was hacked and some 143 million consumers' financial and personal data was exposed. - Read More, NPR

Equifax Promises A New Lifetime Service, As New Leader Offers An Apology