Credit rating agency Equifax to pay up to $600 million in largest-ever data breach settlement

Equifax, the U.S.-based credit rating agency, will pay up to $600 million to settle federal and state investigations into a 2017 data breach of personal information that affected nearly half the country’s population.

The agency will pay a Consumer Restitution Fund of up to $425 million and a $175 million payment to the states in the “largest data breach settlement in history,” the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Monday.

“Equifax put profits over privacy and greed over people, and must be held accountable to the millions of people they put at risk,” James said.

The agency is also required to offer consumers, who had their data exposed, with free credit-monitoring services for up to 10 years.

Earlier this month, Facebook was reportedly fined for about $5 billion by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for mishandling users’ personal information.