Fortune: Congress Wants Equifax to Answer Questions About Massive Data Breach
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) said Friday that his committee intends to hold a hearing on the historic data breach, which cybersecurity experts said dwarf other high-profile security incidents affecting companies like Yahoo (YHOO) and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) also said his committee intends to hold a hearing about the data breach at a later date, according to The Hill.
"After receiving an initial briefing from Equifax, I have decided to hold a hearing on the matter so that we can learn what went wrong and what we need to do to better protect consumers from serious breaches like this in the future," Walden said in a statement.
Additionally, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Calif.) sent a letter on Friday urging the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the incident. Lieu wants the committee to call representatives of the "Big Three" credit reporting agencies—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—to testify.
Although Experian and TransUnion don't appear to be involved with the Equifax data breach, Lieu wants all of the credit reporting companies to detail their cybersecurity practices and what they are doing to prevent future incidents.
"Ultimately, consumer credit agencies should be one of our lines of defense against cyber attacks, and it is deeply disturbing whenever a firm that holds such valuable information gets breached," Lieu wrote.
Fortune contacted Equifax for comment about the proposed hearings and will update this story if it responds.
Equifax CEO Richard Smith previously apologized on Thursday for the data breach and said, "This is clearly a disappointing event for our company, and one that strikes at the heart of who we are and what we do."
"We pride ourselves on being a leader in managing and protecting data, and we are conducting a thorough review of our overall security operations," Smith said in a statement. "We also are focused on consumer protection and have developed a comprehensive portfolio of services to support all U.S. consumers, regardless of whether they were impacted by this incident."
The Wall Street Journal also reported that prior to Equifax's data breach disclosure on Thursday, a congressional panel was debating a proposed bill that would lower the fines credit-monitoring companies receive when they issue flawed credit reports for their customers.
Equifax's data breach could potentially derail the bill, which was proposed by Republican congressmen who want to cut back on government regulations, the report explained.