Equifax collects and analyzes data on over 800 million consumers and 90 million businesses. The companys files were accessed by hackers from May of 2017 through July of 2017. The company discovered the security breach in late July of 2017. In early September of 2017, Equifax disclosed that a security breach had exposed the data of 147 million people (over 40 percent of the US population was affected). Hackers obtained consumer birth dates, social security numbers, drivers license numbers, and addresses. After the disclosure of the breach, the companys share price dropped 22 percent in the next few days. The company was also quickly hit with 23 separate class action lawsuits.

How should Equifax have reported the data breach in its 2017 annual report?

If you knew that Equifax settled the case for $575 million in 2019, would that change your answer?