U.S. House panel to hold hearing on Equifax data breach

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Equifax Inc data breach that may have exposed personal information of many as 143 million U.S. consumers, a committee spokesman told Reuters on Friday.

"This is obviously a very serious and very troubling situation and our committee has already begun preparations for a hearing. Large-scale security breaches are becoming all too common," said Representative Jeb Hensarling, who chairs the committee in a statement.

A date for the hearing has not yet been set.

New York, Illinois and Connecticut attorneys general said Friday they were opening separate state investigations into the Equifax Inc data breach that could be one of the largest data breaches ever in the United States.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan urged Equifax to suspend its charge for placing a credit freeze on consumer accounts in light of the risk of identity theft.

Earlier, a congressional spokesman said aides would get a briefing on Friday from the company.

Staff will receive a briefing on the incident from Equifax officials, said Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for the U.S. House of Representatives' Financial Services Committee.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)