(Former executives were under scrutiny for selling shares before the breach was announced for a time, but later were cleared by Equifax .) The comeuppance for Equifax may only be investor pressure and class-action suits serving as a stick to ward off corporate negligence, unless Equifax quashes class-actions due to forced-arbitration clauses that many consumers have unwittingly agreed to, something the CEO admitted. Strong, mandatory penalties for negligence The senators' new bill, The Data Breach Prevention and Compensation Act, would enact very sharp, mandated penalties against credit reporting agencies (the three main ones are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) when there is a security breach.