As I commented when the hack first happened, there is no incentive for Equifax to care about you in this situation. You aren’t their customer. I am no fan of government control, but this seems to be a case where they should be involved. Not to control the marketplace but to establish rules for tort law so that you can hold the Equifaxes of the world accountable.
Many sites posted guides to protecting yourself now that it’s happened. But if you want to prevent this kind of thing from happening again, your only solution is government regulation (as unlikely as that may be at the moment).
The market can’t fix this. Markets work because buyers choose between sellers, and sellers compete for buyers. In case you didn’t notice, you’re not Equifax’s customer. You’re its product.
This happened because your personal information is valuable, and Equifax is in the business of selling it. The company is much more than a credit reporting agency. It’s a data broker. It collects information about all of us, analyzes it all, and then sells those insights. Read more here.