One week after Equifax Inc. revealed a cybersecurity incident impacting some 143 million U.S. consumers, the credit reporting behemoth is facing legal and reputational repercussions of massive proportions.

For a legal department led by corporate vice president and chief legal officer John Kelley III, who seemingly has the last word on company security and compliance matters, the coming months and years are sure to be rife with high costs and what will likely be hard-fought battles to limit the damage done by class action suits.

Will Class Actions Survive?

Current external troubles for Equifax, which declined to comment for this story, began with the Sept. 7 announcement that sensitive consumer information, such as Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, birth dates and addresses, had been compromised. The incident, which was first discovered on July 29, prompted a number of investigations, backlash because of the company's response and criticism due to a credit report monitoring site that's vulnerable to hackers. Added to that are more than 20 proposed class actions suits, and counting.