Credit

Yes, the credit bureau goofed badly on data security, and it proved to be worse at crisis management. But other companies have been just as sloppy with cyber defenses, and business and government leaders should have tackled these problems long before now.

Equifax Inc. will debut a new service that will permanently give consumers the ability to lock and unlock their credit for free.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., plans to reintroduce legislation requiring the IRS to fast-track income verification, which proponents say could reduce the financial industry's dependence on credit bureaus.

It’s not just consumers who are worried about identity theft. For the millions of business owners who rely on their personal credit to finance operations, damage to credit scores could have dire consequences.

As Equifax sheds its top execs, more experts are casting attention on the business practice of charging consumers for monitoring their personal data at bureaus that otherwise give them little control over their financial identities.

Equifax observed an increasingly well-worn ritual of scandal-ridden firms by jettisoning CEO Richard Smith: apologize, promise to do better in the future, and sacrifice your top executive in the hopes it will ward off action by Congress and regulators.

Inevitably, Equifax’s CEO Richard Smith has left his post. For the credit bureau's sake, let's hope it has a long-term plan that's better than promoting from within.

Barb Godin is one of two women on the 15-member operating committee at Regions Financial.

Summit Credit Union in Madison, Wis., has filed what's believed to be the first lawsuit by a financial institution in connection with the massive data breach.

The hearings before the Senate Banking Committee have high stakes for both companies, as lawmakers are expected to ask the CEOs whether they should be fired.