Equifax breach exposes 143 million people to identity theft

I was able to put a freeze at all 4 for both of us. Is there an reason to do toddlers?
 
I was able to put a freeze at all 4 for both of us. Is there an reason to do toddlers?

Usually young people will be "ghosts" at the credit reporting agencies, meaning they won't even recognize them. I checked my boys when they were 15-16 and they didn't show up. At least that's how it was 8-10 years ago
yea, i got some info in, but then 2 bombed.
told me to call them.
now it's got me worried....

I am sure all three websites are slammed right now. Probably completely overloaded. Give it a day or two.
I was able to put a freeze at all 4 for both of us. Is there an reason to do toddlers?

There's only three. Equifax, Transunion, and Experian.
 
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That's what I was thinking, they are slammed right now.

My credit is excellent, or it was....
No idea with this breach and how it may or may not affect me.
 
Usually young people will be "ghosts" at the credit reporting agencies, meaning they won't even recognize them. I checked my boys when they were 15-16 and they didn't show up. At least that's how it was 8-10 years ago


I am sure all three websites are slammed right now. Probably completely overloaded. Give it a day or two.


There's only three. Equifax, Transunion, and Experian.
No, there's one more, innovis
 
No, there's one more, innovis
Interesting, and thanks. I just looked them up. That's all we need, another database to be breached. They've not been a factor in my credit freezing/unfreezing in ten years but as a small player keeping a database I guess they shouldn't be overlooked.
 
I signed up my wife and I both for their free service. Will keep it monitored and all but it is becoming apparent that no information is safe.
 
Rumor now is the free service may be a secret opt out of any future class action law suit.
 
I was able to put a freeze at all 4 for both of us. Is there an reason to do toddlers?
If I recall correctly, I read on the consumer site clarkhoward.com that unless there is fraud, as in someone using their identity fraudulently, they won't create an "active" file for a minor.
 
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I signed up my wife and I both for their free service. Will keep it monitored and all but it is becoming apparent that no information is safe.
I also froze all 4 agencies and opted out of pre-approved offers. We are not borrowing anything for the foreseeable future and with Eqfx and TU it is easy to unlock by logging into their services which are free. Exp is just a PIN and is easy as well. Peace of mind anyway.

Another thing is NEVER use your actual debit card online and change the number yearly. I have the Paypal debit card that comes from my checking but gives me time to head off any fraud as there is about a 2 day delay in the funds leaving the bank. This is all we use online. A credit card could be used the same way.

My business banker says never use your debit card at fuel pumps.
 
Even if you use it as a credit card?
She says that it is much worse because that money is gone until you can get the bank to put it back, can take weeks. Your checking can have huge fees, checks bounce and general mayhem until straightened out. With a cc, you do not have to do anything except pay the minimum payment until it is straightened out and there are no impacts to your checking.
 
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Rumor now is the free service may be a secret opt out of any future class action law suit.

If you sign up for it and don't write Equifax to tell them you don't agree to those terms or something like that. I am not signing up for their service (not because I want to sue them but because I don't trust them not to screw the pooch yet again)
 
Any word on if the security freeze codes (of people who had frozen their credit prior to this event) were part of the hack?

I got paranoid and signed up for lifelock, then froze things. Does lifelock inform you if there's an unfreeze?
 
She says that it is much worse because that money is gone until you can get the bank to put it back, can take weeks. Your checking can have huge fees, checks bounce and general mayhem until straightened out. With a cc, you do not have to do anything except pay the minimum payment until it is straightened out and there are no impacts to your checking.
@Don the issue is card skimmers which are hard to detect.

She recommended having a card for fuel only...
And a card for everyday purchases like groceries...
And paying them both off every month, never pay interest plus earn a % back.

This gives you really good protection from being a victim and having your checking wiped out.
 
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I was able to go to the big 3 and put on the Freeze.......hope its not to little to late. My wife and I have great scores above 830, hope we do not get hit.
 
@Don the issue is card skimmers which are hard to detect.

She recommended having a card for fuel only...
And a card for everyday purchases like groceries...
And paying them both off every month, never pay interest plus earn a % back.

This gives you really good protection from being a victim and having your checking wiped out.

That sounds like good advise.

I had quit using my debit card for fuel purchases some time ago. I'll have to make sure that Elaine isn't either.

And I've started grabbing and pulling on the card readers on the pumps just to make sure that nothing is loose on them before I swipe my card.
 
Any word on if the security freeze codes (of people who had frozen their credit prior to this event) were part of the hack?

OK, so I looked at their FAQ's w/r/t the breach. https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/frequently-asked-questions/

What information may have been impacted?


The information accessed primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. Criminals also accessed credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers. As part of our investigation of this application vulnerability, we also identified unauthorized access to limited personal information for certain UK and Canadian residents. We have found no evidence that personal information of consumers in any other country has been impacted.

I just called them; interestingly the Contact Us page only has a phone number, no email. They probably don't want to put anything down in writing. https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/contact-us/

After a long hold time, I finally got someone and I asked if security freeze pin codes were stolen as part of the data breach. The person started reading the above FAQ response verbatim. So their public facing people have no clue and can't tell you what isn't already in the FAQ.

The funny part is their phone system and reps refers to this as "the incident". Reminds me of Resident Evil and references to the Raccoon City "incident".
 
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One of these companies got breached a few years ago. Which one was it?
 
I got paranoid and signed up for lifelock, then froze things. Does lifelock inform you if there's an unfreeze?
I would think that they would inform you of any change.

I have banking alerts that let me know each time a card is used, deposit made or check clears ect.

I also signed up for alerts with Eqfx and TU so if anyone tried to obtain credit in my or my wife's name we would be alerted.

Precarious times.

One good idea too is to limit accounts to one or two real banks....with people...in a branch....not in Pakistan.....
 
Equifax: woeful PINs put frozen credit files at risk

Good grief. I went back and looked at my Equifax security freeze pin from a few years ago, and sure enough it's a bloody timestamp. My Experian and Transunion pins seem more random.

Unbelievable that a company entrusted with so much personal data has been so lax with security.
 
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Equifax: woeful PINs put frozen credit files at risk

Good grief. I went back and looked at my Equifax security freeze pin from a few years ago, and sure enough it's a bloody timestamp. My Experian and Transunion pins seem more random.

Unbelievable that a company entrusted with so much personal data has been so lax with security.

Yep. Experian and TransUnion allowed me to enter my own PIN. Equifax provided the PIN and it is still a time stamp :(
 
Equifax: woeful PINs put frozen credit files at risk

Good grief. I went back and looked at my Equifax security freeze pin from a few years ago, and sure enough it's a bloody timestamp. My Experian and Transunion pins seem more random.

Unbelievable that a company entrusted with so much personal data has been so lax with security.

Maybe the VP in charge of security should have been someone with a security background and not a music composition one.

SMDH.
 
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The well is dry, with one daughter planning on grad school and one in 2nd yr undergrad, I'm tapped out.
I can't get a payday advance! (just kidding)
 
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Want to buy some Equifax stock?
Speaking of this, I saw a report on another site that said the executives sold a bunches before the news release.

I'm sure those funds are out of the country and out of reach,
 
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Speaking of this, I saw a report on another site that said the executives sold a bunches before the news release.

I'm sure those funds are out of the country and out of reach,
A few of them did. It may be true that those that did were unaware. Problem is that one of them was on the Board. So their lousy security experiences the greatest data breach in history and they didn't tell their Board? They will have a lot of explaining to do, both in court and in Congress.
 
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(Narrator reads story of 2017) "And suddenly, the poor nerdy kid who got fired from Google was validated 100 percent in saying that forcing diversity hurts the workplace, the workers, and the consumer. And maybe we should put the best candidate in, instead of the candidate with the popular skin color or gender".
 
Bruce Scheier in his monthly Cryptogram newsletter (https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2017/0915.html) had a rather interesting write up about this event. In particular, his major point is that the consumer, who is clearly the victim in this incident, has no economic market control over companies like Equifax because they simply are not the consumer but rather are a product being sold regardless of their will in the matter. He says that the only real viable means that the consumer has at their disposal is government regulation, which unlike the victim has the ability to raise the costs of maintaining an insecure system such that it becomes economically desirable for entities such as Equifax to secure their systems.
And again, many companies that track us do so in secret, without our knowledge and consent. And most of the time we can't opt out. Sometimes it's a company like Equifax that doesn't answer to us in any way. Sometimes it's a company like Facebook, which is effectively a monopoly because of its sheer size. And sometimes it's our cell phone provider. All of them have decided to track us and not compete by offering consumers privacy. Sure, you can tell people not to have an e-mail account or cell phone, but that's not a realistic option for most people living in 21st-century America.

The companies that collect and sell our data don't need to keep it secure in order to maintain their market share. They don't have to answer to us, their products. They know it's more profitable to save money on security and weather the occasional bout of bad press after a data loss. Yes, we are the ones who suffer when criminals get our data, or when our private information is exposed to the public, but ultimately why should Equifax care?

Market failures like this can only be solved through government intervention. By regulating the security practices of companies that store our data, and fining companies that fail to comply, governments can raise the cost of insecurity high enough that security becomes a cheaper alternative. They can do the same thing by giving individuals affected by these breaches the ability to sue successfully, citing the exposure of personal data itself as a harm.

In other news, it looks like the idiots at Equifax used the (default ?) password "admin" for (root ?) access to their damned database :mad:
 
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(Narrator reads story of 2017) "And suddenly, the poor nerdy kid who got fired from Google was validated 100 percent in saying that forcing diversity hurts the workplace, the workers, and the consumer. And maybe we should put the best candidate in, instead of the candidate with the popular skin color or gender".
My favorite comeback to our CEO when he talked about diversity on our executive team was: imagine if an NBA team followed a diversity protocol and hired white athletes! no reply!
 
My favorite comeback to our CEO when he talked about diversity on our executive team was: imagine if an NBA team followed a diversity protocol and hired white athletes! no reply!

I would probably watch the DNBA, Dwarf-NBA, no who am I kidding basketball is awful
 
I would probably watch the DNBA, Dwarf-NBA, no who am I kidding basketball is awful
you got that right about basketball being awful. I used to watch the NFL but stopped that too after the thugs staying seated, raising a fist or kneeling during the National Anthem. The NFL owners care only about the $, they are the bosses and could tell these thugs: you work for this organization and you will do what I ask you to do. imagine if I had showed up in the office wearing gym shorts and a wife beater shirt...well, I did break the rules and had a firearm in my briefcase but that was not in the open :)
 
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