One of the nation’s largest consumer credit monitoring companies is settling a federal lawsuit over a breach that happened in 2017, impacting 147 million consumers in the U.S. and 5.4 million Illinoisans who could be in line for a cash payment. But a consumer advocate says that’s not enough.

The settlement is expected to be approved by a federal judge. Equifax has set up a website to get consumers impacted by the breach some kind of restitution, including a $125 payment or free credit monitoring, or even up to $20,000, depending on how much time someone took to address identity theft.

“When the website is updated, you will be able to see if you are a class member and, if so, to file a claim for the benefits,” the company says on the website. “Please note that none of these benefits will be distributed or available until the settlement is finally approved by the court.”

The website to see if you’re included as part of the settlement is EquifaxBreachSettlement.com.

Equifax announced Monday that the company will pay consumers up to $425 million in restitution, including more than $7.3 million for Illinoisans, plus other fines.

“I just think it will be important to know and look for what hoops consumers are going to have to go through in order to benefit from this settlement,” Illinois Public Information Research Group Director Abe Scarr said.

Scarr said the settlement is “too little too late.”

“We’re talking about millions and millions of Americans who have had their financial security put at risk and we don’t think this settlement is up to the harm that’s been done,” Scarr said.

Equifax said it admits no wrongdoing in the settlement.

Scarr said while consumers can request their credit rating be frozen, and can request a free credit report per year from the three main credit monitoring bureaus, consumers don’t have many options for securing their data from these type of credit monitoring companies.

“Consumers don’t sign up for Equifax or the other credit bureaus,” Scarr said. “Their information is tracked regardless.”

As to ensuring consumers keep their data as secure as possible, Scarr said Congress may need to step in to provide the protection they deserve.

“Do we want to allow these credit bureaus to continue to have this type of authority and for consumers not to be able to, for example, opt out of having their financial information tracked by these credit bureaus,” Scarr said.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the settlement has Equifax agreeing to take the following steps to help those facing identity theft issues:

• Making it easier for consumers to freeze and thaw their credit.
• Making it easier for consumers to dispute inaccurate information in credit reports.
• Maintaining sufficient staff dedicated to assisting consumers who may be victims of identity theft.

Equifax has also agreed to strengthen its security practices going forward, Raoul’s office sad, including:

• Reorganizing its data security team.
• Minimizing its collection of sensitive data and the use of people’s social security numbers.
• Performing regular security monitoring, logging and testing.
• Employing improved access control and account management tools.
• Reorganizing and segmenting its network.
• Reorganizing its patch management team, and implementing new policies to identify and implement critical security updates and patches.