[abbot2]

1. Force everyone to register to get access to content. 2. Leak that data. 3. ... 4. Profit. Not sure how this part works though.

I hope lesson should be learned: don't force users to register just because you can

[YetAnotherNick]

I see no lesson to be learned from the business perspective. If equifax can recover from their data loss, any company can.

[mulmen]

Well equifax didn’t harm any of their customers so their bounce back should be no surprise.

[ttty2]

If they didn't, then no company will ever harm any customer.

[zbentley]

I'll bite. How did they not harm their users?

[mulmen]

Equifax’s customers are whoever pays them for access to data. Their customers are not the people who had their personal data exposed.

The first rule of Web 2.0 is still true: if you are not paying for the product you are the product.

[zbentley]

It costs me money (past a certain number of freebies) to access Equifax's data on me--to get a credit report.

I get that this is not their main business model, and that their customers that they bundle and sell consumer data to are more valuable. But end users, in this case, are still customers. They still pay money and get a service in return. Contrasted with e.g. Google services, it's a different scenario.