Chris Lewis, CEO of consumer group Public Knowledge agreed that an automatic credit freeze would have done a lot more to help consumers than free credit reporting. Lewis also noted that massive fines alone can only go so far. Put Equifax out of business without addressing the underlying oversight issues that make its security and privacy apathy commonplace, and you just wind up with another company doing the same thing, he said. "I mean, that wouldn't have been the worst result—some companies need to go out of business in response to catastrophic failures of trust—but the credit bureau function would still be filled by someone else," he said. "But a freeze-by-default regime makes it harder for attackers to abuse that system." Lewis said the failure in the FTC's privacy enforcement highlights one thing clearly: the need for the United States to finally pass a meaningful privacy law with serious corporate penalties for lax security and privacy practices.