How can Consumers protect themselves from the shoddy security practices of agencies like Equifax?

Credit Rating agencies seem to have all of the cards stacked on their side. Not only are they viewed as the pinnacle of data analysis and extraction, but they are supposed to be impregnable - so that banks and other creditors will share their data with them with the confidence that it will be safe. Equifax is on strike 3 in 2 years and in a recent interview, the CEO, I believe his public last name is ‘Smith’, admitted that perhaps they hadn’t done enough fast enough to protect their and our data after the first breach 2 years ago. Why are they in business at all. They keep proving that they are not trustworthy and their execs just ‘happened’ to sell millions of dollars in stock during the 6 weeks between the time the hack was discovered and when it was reported to the public. COME ON - THESE GUYS ARE CROOKS - PURE AND SIMPLE AND THEY DON’T REALIZE THAT IF THEY CAN’T GUARANTEE THAT THEY ARE NOT THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR MILLIONS OF IDENTITY BREACHES BECAUSE THEY DON’T FOCUS ON DATA SECURITY WHICH HAS TO BE JOB ONE FOR THEM. THEY SHOULD NOT BE TRUSTED BY ANY CREDITOR WHO WANTS TO GUARANTEE THAT THEIR CUSTOMER’S PERSONAL INFORMATION IS SAFE.

The real question here is why aren’t all banks, VISA, all finance companies, all creditors of any scale that report to credit agencies pulling all of their accounts out of Equifax. I am waiting for two things - Any network news to ask this question and the Federal Reserve asking it of the banks. Is our system so darn broken and fraught with cronyism that the important questions never get asked?

I leave this to all of us to start demanding that our creditors stop reporting to Equifax or we close all of our accounts - that will get some action.