GDSmithTX
Corporate cog
What a lying asshole. He'll be running for office in no time.
So what do we think of the massive Equifax data breach
- Thread starter DdBob
- Start date
What a lying asshole. He'll be running for office in no time.
mongooz
.
he'll be appointed director of the securities and exchange commision rolleyes1
(or perhaps the chairman of the federal reserve bank)
335clone
Living the dream
Check with your home insurance co. I have a free monitoring service through Farmers. Not sure how it stacks up against others, but it's free (with my continued home/auto bundle).
nuke_diver
Riding Solo
Tig
Fucktangular
From the master of the bigger security picture, Bruce Schneier:
Last Thursday, Equifax reported a data breach that affects 143 million
US customers, about 44% of the population. It's an extremely serious
breach; hackers got access to full names, Social Security numbers, birth
dates, addresses, driver's license numbers -- exactly the sort of
information criminals can use to impersonate victims to banks, credit
card companies, insurance companies, and other businesses vulnerable to
fraud.
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.
Its customers are people and organizations who want to buy information:
banks looking to lend you money, landlords deciding whether to rent you
an apartment, employers deciding whether to hire you, companies trying
to figure out whether you'd be a profitable customer -- everyone who
wants to sell you something, even governments.
It's not just Equifax. It might be one of the biggest, but there are
2,500 to 4,000 other data brokers that are collecting, storing, and
selling information about you -- almost all of them companies you've
never heard of and have no business relationship with.
Surveillance capitalism fuels the Internet, and sometimes it seems that
everyone is spying on you. You're secretly tracked on pretty much every
commercial website you visit. Facebook is the largest surveillance
organization mankind has created; collecting data on you is its business
model. I don't have a Facebook account, but Facebook still keeps a
surprisingly complete dossier on me and my associations -- just in case
I ever decide to join.
I also don't have a Gmail account, because I don't want Google storing
my e-mail. But my guess is that it has about half of my e-mail anyway,
because so many people I correspond with have accounts. I can't even
avoid it by choosing not to write to gmail.com addresses, because I have
no way of knowing if newperson@company.com is hosted at Gmail.
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?
Yes, it's a huge black eye for the company -- this week. Soon, another
company will have suffered a massive data breach and few will remember
Equifax's problem. Does anyone remember last year when Yahoo admitted
that it exposed personal information of a billion users in 2013 and
another half billion in 2014?
This market failure isn't unique to data security. There is little
improvement in safety and security in any industry until government
steps in. Think of food, pharmaceuticals, cars, airplanes, restaurants,
workplace conditions, and flame-retardant pajamas.
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.
By all means, take the recommended steps to protect yourself from
identity theft in the wake of Equifax's data breach, but recognize that
these steps are only effective on the margins, and that most data
security is out of your hands. Perhaps the Federal Trade Commission will
get involved, but without evidence of "unfair and deceptive trade
practices," there's nothing it can do. Perhaps there will be a
class-action lawsuit, but because it's hard to draw a line between any
of the many data breaches you're subjected to and a specific harm,
courts are not likely to side with you.
If you don't like how careless Equifax was with your data, don't waste
your breath complaining to Equifax. Complain to your government.
Last Thursday, Equifax reported a data breach that affects 143 million
US customers, about 44% of the population. It's an extremely serious
breach; hackers got access to full names, Social Security numbers, birth
dates, addresses, driver's license numbers -- exactly the sort of
information criminals can use to impersonate victims to banks, credit
card companies, insurance companies, and other businesses vulnerable to
fraud.
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.
Its customers are people and organizations who want to buy information:
banks looking to lend you money, landlords deciding whether to rent you
an apartment, employers deciding whether to hire you, companies trying
to figure out whether you'd be a profitable customer -- everyone who
wants to sell you something, even governments.
It's not just Equifax. It might be one of the biggest, but there are
2,500 to 4,000 other data brokers that are collecting, storing, and
selling information about you -- almost all of them companies you've
never heard of and have no business relationship with.
Surveillance capitalism fuels the Internet, and sometimes it seems that
everyone is spying on you. You're secretly tracked on pretty much every
commercial website you visit. Facebook is the largest surveillance
organization mankind has created; collecting data on you is its business
model. I don't have a Facebook account, but Facebook still keeps a
surprisingly complete dossier on me and my associations -- just in case
I ever decide to join.
I also don't have a Gmail account, because I don't want Google storing
my e-mail. But my guess is that it has about half of my e-mail anyway,
because so many people I correspond with have accounts. I can't even
avoid it by choosing not to write to gmail.com addresses, because I have
no way of knowing if newperson@company.com is hosted at Gmail.
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?
Yes, it's a huge black eye for the company -- this week. Soon, another
company will have suffered a massive data breach and few will remember
Equifax's problem. Does anyone remember last year when Yahoo admitted
that it exposed personal information of a billion users in 2013 and
another half billion in 2014?
This market failure isn't unique to data security. There is little
improvement in safety and security in any industry until government
steps in. Think of food, pharmaceuticals, cars, airplanes, restaurants,
workplace conditions, and flame-retardant pajamas.
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.
By all means, take the recommended steps to protect yourself from
identity theft in the wake of Equifax's data breach, but recognize that
these steps are only effective on the margins, and that most data
security is out of your hands. Perhaps the Federal Trade Commission will
get involved, but without evidence of "unfair and deceptive trade
practices," there's nothing it can do. Perhaps there will be a
class-action lawsuit, but because it's hard to draw a line between any
of the many data breaches you're subjected to and a specific harm,
courts are not likely to side with you.
If you don't like how careless Equifax was with your data, don't waste
your breath complaining to Equifax. Complain to your government.
Last edited:
smurfco
Meatus McPrepuce
This is correct. I did this yesterday after finding out my info was included in the breach.
The two things to do right now if you are impacted:
1. IMMEDIATELY PUT A SECURITY FREEZE ON YOUR CREDIT WITH ALL THREE AGENCIES as listed above by Tig. The sites are experiencing high traffic and are crashing a lot. You may have better luck by phone; I got TransUnion taken care of online but Experian and Equifax required me to use the phone.
- Equifax — 1-800-349-9960
- Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742
- TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872
dmn23
Duller than cardboard
Dogsinplastic
avuncular to no one
And the IRS is still going to hire to help with tax security issues?
shoeless
Riffin'
That is going to be a gigantic cluster-fuck, and probably the scariest part of this whole thing. Sure, freezing your credit report can stop someone from getting a credit card or loan with your name (probably), but that's a small part of identity theft. Fraudulent tax returns are going to be a huge problem, along with Medicare/Medicaid claims. This is just the beginning. We really need a better way to identify people rather than an antiquated 9 digit number.
I have always resisted putting my SSNO on forms that have no business asking for them. If nothing else, hopefully this will prevent forms from automatically having that field.
telecaster911
Kick Henry Jackassowski
So, what is the best way to see if one’s information was part of the breach?
shoeless
Riffin'
Go here https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/am-i-impacted/
It said I was not affected, but I went ahead and locked my credit reports anyway. It's free to lock in my state, with a fee to unlock. YMMV
telecaster911
Kick Henry Jackassowski
I was a little worried to go there since they screwed the pooch to begin with 
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I read something that said that site did absolutely nothing but lie about you not being impacted.
I can’t find the article now, but some follow up article said that that site was somehow breached or insecure.
It’s best to get on the phone and put the locks in place.
telecaster911
Kick Henry Jackassowski
Here’s what my credit union recommended to use for ID theft. Thoughts?
https://www.sherpaidentitytheftprotection.com/
https://www.sherpaidentitytheftprotection.com/
shoeless
Riffin'
Yeah, given Equifax's history, I didn't really trust the answer, so I went ahead and put the locks in place. I think I'll be good about getting my taxes filed early this year too.