The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into the hack of consumer credit reporting agency Equifax Inc. as an expert has predicted that the company itself may not survive the fallout.

The investigation was confirmed by the agency in what the Washington Post describes as a “highly unusual” move given that it rarely publicly discloses investigations. It comes on top of various lawsuits, an investigation by New York’s Department of Financial Services and also potential action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. government agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector.

“The FTC typically does not comment on ongoing investigations,” FTC spokesperson Peter Kaplan said in a statement. “However, in light of the intense public interest and the potential impact of this matter, I can confirm that FTC staff is investigating the Equifax data breach.”

In a somewhat rare bipartisan response to the hack, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer — fresh from dining at the White House and claiming that President Trump “likes me” — said that the Equifax hack was “one of the most egregious examples of corporate malfeasance since Enron.” Schumer called on the company’s chief executive and board to quit if they don’t act to address the situation within a week. “We need to get to the bottom of this, the murky bottom, the dirty bottom,” he added.

The investigation, along with the mounting condemnation of the company, has some predicting that Equifax won’t survive going forward. Technology attorney Mark Grossman told CNBC that the end of the company may be nigh.

“We’ve seen a $6 billion loss in market cap, estimated losses from these breaches in excess of $20 billion,” Grossman said. “This is ugly. The facts are still unfolding. It’s going to get worse. … We’re pointing to a bankruptcy. We’re pointing to a takeover.”

Equifax itself has been fairly quiet on the issue. Its latest update on the hack only confirmed what was already known: The hack occurred because of a vulnerability in Apache Struts2.

As SiliconANGLE reported Wednesday, that vulnerability, first detected in March, may have exposed Equifax’s competitors to hacking as well. Equifax claimed that it patched the vulnerability in May, two months after the vulnerability was known. However, in its initial hack disclosure, the company claimed that data was stolen up to July 29, suggesting that at some point, either now or before, Equifax was being disingenuous with the truth.

Photo: donabelandewen/Flickr