Equifax Breached

[CaddmannQ]

I may be way out in left field, but the breach of Equifax smells like an inside job from here.

Way too easy for the people that ran it to sell off all our data under the table, then to sell off their own stock before people find out, then to turn around and buy it all back for half the price when Equifax collapses, and being "too big to fail", the government gets ready to bail them out.

 

[OhioArcher]

News said third time in 5 years. And wouldn't ya know, I'm one of them. So's the wife. Banks don't know what to do yet.

Happened 6 weeks ago and they just announce it. Three execs dumped 1.8 M in Equifax stocks after the hack but "didn't know about the hack and lose of data". Yeah, right...

 

[ripjack13]

Their website says im effected and my wife too....
I've never used equifax. They must have bought my info....

 

[MikeD]

Their website says im effected and my wife too....
I've never used equifax. They must have bought my info....

You use them by default, they are one of the 3 credit reporting agencies that every creditor reports to.

What is BS is that they are now trying to charge people to protect themselves from the hack. I want to know how I can profit from my lack of security.

 

[John A.]

As if.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Everything I own is paid for. I have what I need and I have income and I don't need credit anymore. oops: I hope to God)

I should change my name, sand off my fingerprints, and go off the grid.

So much data was stolen that it's an enormous task to go through it and figure out what you do and don't want.

Fortunately there are people with better credit ratings than mine and I hope the perps go there first!

 

[MikeD]

I think the biggest issue I have with this is that we cannot opt out. These companies store huge amounts of out personal financial information and we can not opt out of it!

They are what stands between us and out next line of credit, our next interest rate, etc yet they cannot even tell people that their information was stolen, then try to charge us for their damage control. Its freaking ridiculous.

As if this wasn't bad enough every time it happens we have to endure even more invasive security procedures that makes all of our lines more inconvenient and forces us to give up even more of out privacy.

I'm tired of having my life disrupted by other people mistakes. I've had my damn cards cancelled on me multiple times in the last couple years due to security breaches and it is always a complete pain in the ass to get everything straightened out, esp if it happens when you are on the road or on vacation and are often literally stranded wherever you are until you can get it straightened out.

 

[John A.]

I agree Mike.

I typically try to keep a few dollars cash on me while traveling just because of what you brought up.

 

[CaddmannQ]

I won't go out of town with just cards either. I do not even have a credit card anymore. I have a debit account with a card, that I keep a limited amount of cash in. It's not linked to any other accounts. I don't have any other accounts at that bank.

People will tell you that unless you have a real credit card that your money is unprotected. This is pure BS as a credit card does not protect you from expense at all. The best protection for your money is to limit the access of others to it.

It is not viable to have some scheme that pretends to insure you from loss, if the company that runs that scheme is one of the world's biggest hacking targets.

 

[CaddmannQ]

. . .
It is not viable to have some scheme that pretends to insure you from loss, if the company that runs that scheme is one of the world's biggest hacking targets.

Oh my Lord....

They're putting the fox in charge of the hen house again.

According to the consumerist, Equifax operates the service supposedly insuring our future protection from breaches perpetrated against them already, due to their crummy security.

So what good is the security at this new site? You have to give them all your data again!

Grrrrr.....

Also, from identitytheft.gov



Okay now, not only are us consumers getting screwed when they "use" Equifax, they have to worry about getting screwed when they use the government website.

Is your computer secure? Is the network you were on secure?

I'm sure Equifax thought theirs was. So did the Pentagon and the CIA and the Democratic National Convention and Hillary Clinton when they all got hacked.

But you citizens better make sure your computers are secure! And the network you're on, it better be secured too!

 

[Scoop]

I'm sorry to bust your bubbles, guys. But you can't afford to have computer "security."

The electronic processing of data involves emanations of electronic signals that can be read remotely by not very sophisticated equipment.

The government had studied this back in the '60s and had a few very expensive systems isolated to prevent TEMPEST leaks.

If you want to have secure communication this is the limit of technology:

 

[CaddmannQ]

If only it were that simple buddy.

Most hacks are only accomplished through social engineering. People are convinced somehow to give up the secrets necessary. Sometimes by subterfuge sometimes by force. This is a problem which predates computers by thousands of years.

Say a big company like Experian is doing well. As a matter of fact, their business is sewed up so tight it's better than any mafia racket and just as profitable plus it enjoys the protection of the United States legal and Financial system.

Great Success, of course, makes them a Target for criminals.

To Horn in on that success you basically need to endanger and blackmail or extort. And let's face it, it's easy to do; because very few people are 100% honest 100% moral and 100% ethical in their dealings. They are also, by and large, not very brave.

Wealthy people and successful people seem to be no better at this than their poor cousins. Practically everyone is at risk.

So who will guard the guards? Well today it's electronic guards. But even those guards have guards.

One famous hack was accomplished merely by a guy who called up a company and said something like, " Hi Dora, this is Dick. I forgot my new password and I'm locked out. I need to log in under your account so Mary can get the paychecks finished on Friday.

Well it sounded like Dick but it wasn't, and poor Dora gave away access of the company's entire Financial assets to some miscreant.

 

[Scoop]

Well, I am not giving the assets back, and I don't like your application of the word miscreant... I prefer "selfish visionary." Watch yourself young man!

 

[Scoop]

...Most hacks are only accomplished through social engineering. People are convinced somehow to give up the secrets necessary.

Cadd is correct. Social engineering is basically the Bad Guy asking "what is your password" and going from there. Of course, most of the time BG has to make up some story about why he needs the PW to fix a problem or update a computer.

When the Y2K was the big concern in the last months of 1999, I was on a team to insure compliance of systems in government offices. Password control in one large complex required new PW every 60 days requiring minimum character, case, digit and !@#$%^&*()_+ inclusions. That made PW hard to crack, but the weakness was that it was also hard to remember.

So I'd cruise thru dozens of cubicles on my rounds and easily 90% had access info and PW taped to their monitors! Some of our personnel had to access over a dozen accounts to do their jobs. They would also paste the door access codes on the back of their ID cards. Security was a joke.

But internal security has to be monitored faithfully also. I was security sysop for a large bulletin board [a lot less sophisticated than this one here] back in the '90s. Three years after I left the position the new security dude had not removed the accounts I had on the board that were back doors that allowed me to logon with full admin privs.

Frankly, businesses see data security as a low priority. Customers are always vulnerable because there is nobody that cares about their privacy and security at all [...until the lawyers show up w/ their class action suits.].

 

[CaddmannQ]

143,000,000 of us just got screwed and what is on the news? DACA, RUSSIANS, FLOODED PETS AND SENIORS....

WTH?

Of course the Socialist agenda requires us all to be numbered and labeled and pigeon-holed and so they need our data available. That way they know who to screw and who to reward.

Trump should start a new party for the next election called the Anti-Socialist Party.

More people are against what's going on in general than are for any one particular thing. The election of Mr. Trump proves this, because the media clearly portrayed a man who could never get elected in America!

And yet he did (thank God!)

They are totally flabbergasted that he did, because the public has never seen so well, through their veil of crap. They did not realize it was possible in a case such as this.

I guess the fact that he soundly trounced 16 Republicans didn't give them a clue that he could possibly best one crooked Democrat.

Anyhow I'm hoping to see this latest huge hack as an opportunity for intelligent new business models to develop.

 

[OhioArcher]

Good to see multiple investigations going on into this shit. Plus possible charges against the three execs who sold stock after the hack but before the public was notified (something like 6 weeks...WTF?).

Anyway, filled out all their BS online forms and now have them watching my info and accounts (like they should have been in the beginning).

How is there no oversight or regulations on these credit reporting companies? They know every fu**ing thing about us but seem to have no accountability. Almost 1/2 the country's population losses it personal financial info and they're like "oh, well. Here's a couple of trinkets now go away.".

Personally, I think Equifax should be shutdown (like Enron) until ALL the details are released. And any exec that receives a bonus this year should forfeit it and help defray customer expenses. I didn't sign up for them...they were forced on me.

Rant over...for now...