About 143m customers affected by massive Equifax cyber incident

[Skybird]

https://www.computerworld.com/articl...e-denials.html


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ing-cyber-hack

As you all know, I’ve long harped about data collection — by Microsoft, Google and others — and how consumers have no way of knowing what’s being collected or how it’s being used. There are few options for removing data that’s already been collected, and the tools for examining, challenging and removing data seem feeble to nonexistent. Credit agencies are already highly regulated, and look at what’s happened.

You cannot trust neither banks and credit companies, nor digital money. That is my credo since long. I have arranged my life accordingly, as far as possible. People like me are the reason why they want to exterminate cash money alltogether. The strawman argument is once again to fight against terrorism, and to fight against money laundering and evasion of blackmailing protection money (taxes). As if organised crime would be hindered to do what it does if there is no cash money! LOL They want people to go all digital money. That way the state can milk people as it wants without people being able to protect themselves against this milking regime, criminals like Kent Rogoff say this loud and clear. They say the money system is at its end anyway due to the cataclysmic debt levels,, and so they want to equip the state with totalitarian control over people's private properties and saving so that they can now plunder these to buy some more time for their own careers to shine.

So cash money gets exterminated in order to fight crime? Well, this case, not the first of its kind, but probably so far the worst, is shedding some new light on this strawman argument. Already years ago, digital bank robberies stole more money from banks than real life bank robberies.

The whole argument "digital money to fight crime" does not work, is a fake. If it were about fighting crime and limiting damages form crime, credit cards and digital money must be banned and cash money must be made mandatory again. This will not happen, due to the debt apocalypse , and due to the fact that the misery in the digital realm usually can be easier hidden form the public, than cash money miseries.

[Moonlight]

Why anyone has to use these type of companies is beyond me, ahhh, I forgot about the "I want it now" and I'll pay for it over the next 10 years type of people. Is it a government requirement to sign up to one of these credit agencies before you can get any credit or is this a requirement from these agencies?, either way they're putting a lot of faith in these companies who I wouldn't trust to run a piss up in a brewery by the way.

[Skybird]

Plastic money just does not get me. I do not understand it. Most people over here in Germanydo not delay the paying back, they just use cards for "comfort". But what is the comfort in it? It costs more time at the cashdesk. Its a mediator who additionally adds to the costs without providing an actual benefit. Its as if I buy a leaf of bread at the baker, and soembody squeezes himself between me and the sales girl and takes my mine form my hand nd hands it over to her, and she gives the chnage not to me but to him and him then hands it over to me, and for this "service" he demands a fee. What the...? Regarding credit, credit if for people who have money and can afford to have credit. But what is the point? If you cannot afford it, yu cannot buy it. Today'S fioancial jugglers and banks claim that debts can be paid for with more, new debts. That is a lie, it is insane, and against llgic. This is what has ruinbed the ficnail system in big style and pushed states over the cliffs of debt-making. Keynesians love it, Rogoff and Draghi love it. But it is a big great illusion. You cannot pay for debts with new credit - you only make it worse that way. Alchemy it is, the belief that gold could be made from a handful of dirt. Stupid.

And not only does the state want to plunder people, once they must store all their wealth digitally - but once there is no more alternative to digital payment, credit card companies have a monopoly. They then can dictate banking fees as they see fit.

[Peter Cremer]

Hackers generally get away with what they do because they know that they are not likely to get caught. There is never any really dedicated effort made to track them down. Even the very few of them (the stupid ones) that are caught only get a slap on the wrist. Basically, they ruin peoples lives and get a slap on the wrist. Legal penalties do not give them what they deserve. A few years in a country club prison and they are out while their victims are still trying to get their lives back to normal. I think they should get a minimum of 25 years in prison with no parole. Serve the time. I don't care if prisons are overcrowded, they earned it so deal with it. Also no access at all to a computer or phone for the length of the prison term. I am tired of having to call the numbers on my credit cards and get the account numbers changed because some thief tried to buy something using my credit card information.

[gimpy117]

i just looked...Im scott free!

but still, horrid that such personal data is so available

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

i just looked...Im scott free!

but still, horrid that such personal data is so available

200 million:
https://www.scmagazine.com/experian-...rticle/538254/

Earlier this year it became known that another 200 million Indians - every sixth citizen - had its biometric id datesates stolen from government databases.

And if you google "American id theft datatheft", you find that over the past years dozens and dozens of millions of datasets of americans got stolen their id data from credit companies, business companies, government databases.

At the same time, biometric security cannot hold its promises. But collecting biometric data in big databases is excused by credit card companies like Indian's Aadhar bank (who is seen to be maintaining the biggest biometric databse in the world) with "safety" and "security", and the cashless payment scheme the Indian government currently enforces in India (their latest gold prohibition has to be seen in this context, too). Such databases are jackpots for datathefts, and accordingly intensely they get attacked.

A full, complete dataset of a fully profiled consumer-citizen with full movement data profiles from cellphones, account access data, consuming monitor data etc etc, gets traded in criminal realms for up to 220 dollars. The more data is lacking, the cheaper it becomes.

Lets steal 5 million sets, each sellable for an average of 100 dollars: thats half a billion dollar. A very tempting motive for crime.

And for companies selling their customer data as well.

See my sig.

[vienna]

An interesting article about cyber-security and the Equifax debacle; the author is a respected cyber-security expert who puts out a monthly email newsletter I subscribe to; for those who see the whole data security issue as a 'consumer' issue, this paragraph about the matter sums it up nicely:

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.

Don't waste your breath complaining to Equifax about data breach --

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/opinio...ier/index.html





<O>

[Mr Quatro]

My bank is issuing a new bank card for me ... didn't tell me why. They called Sunday and sent an email Monday They said it was in the mail and that they were going to cancel my old one.

I hope it gets here soon no luck today ... Perhaps this hack is the reason why ...

Are any of y'all getting a notice of a new card being issued?

PS I think Sky is onto something, but I'm so use to clicking to pay my bills instead of snail mail and an envelope with a check or money order that it would be hard to change.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

i just looked...Im scott free!

but still, horrid that such personal data is so available

Think again.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/20/1...ity-monitoring

Earlier this month, hackers broke into Equifax's servers and stole 143 million people's personal information, including their Social Security numbers. In response to the attack, Equifax set up a website — www.equifaxsecurity2017.com — for possible victims to verify whether they're affected. Because the process involves sharing sensitive information, consumers have to trust they're entering their data in the right place, which can be tricky because the breach-recovery site itself isn’t part of equifax.com. If users end up on the wrong site, they could end up leaking the data they're already concerned was stolen.

Today, Equifax ended up creating that exact situation on Twitter. In a tweet to a potential victim, the credit bureau linked to securityequifax2017.com, instead of equifaxsecurity2017.com. It was an easy mistake to make, but the result sent the user to a site with no connection to Equifax itself. Equifax deleted the tweet shortly after this article was published, but it remained live for nearly 24 hours.

[Mr Quatro]

My new bank card came in the mail yesterday and it had that new chip technology thing on it ... so I went online to activate it, but nothing happen.

I called the number and the computer voice said your good to go ... I used it today for the first time and it works. Sure different than the old swipe routine for sure and if the gas station doesn't have the chip technology you can just swipe it like normal.

Good news is it's good till 2021 ... that sure sounds like a long way off, uh?
(even if it is only three years from now)

[propbeanie]

Wait until you have to remember the pin number...

[vienna]

<O>

[propbeanie]

NO!!! Say it isn't ~so~!!! Indenti-Vault has been hacked too?!???!!!! I just signed-up there, and had been assigned a cabin just down the holler from where I used to live!... Ratz-ola...

This is so serious though... How many other "me" entries will there be of me by this time next year?...

[mapuc]

As mentioned in another thread I'm not that worried and that's because I have this double confirmation thing and I'm protected by Danish law.

Nevertheless I'm very strictly and sometime I use the International bank order if I feel not sure about a online store.

I use to send them an email and ask if I can send an International Bank Order instead of using my credit card.

I do all I can to protect my credit card

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I do all I can to protect my credit card

I voted for ultimate protection: I cancelled my credit card (twice, since I opted for getting one back, but then gave it up again). Costed money. Was never used. What use is in it different from just generating an income for some company in the middle?

But now I cannot buy Pr3pared. Only loss so far.

And if I ever travel to the US, lack of info on existing credit cards may cause some delay in my "entry formalities". Absence of credit cards is seen as being suspicious, and can cause further security controls on the dubious individual's identity...