Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2017 15:33:47 GMT -5
Along with 143 million other Americans and millions of people in other countries, my data has been compromised by Equifax's data breach. I have frozen my credit, applied for credit monitoring, etc. etc. Now I have to spend the rest of my life watching out for the identity thieves who have my social security number and other credit information.
arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/09/why-the-equifax-breach-is-very-possibly-the-worst-leak-of-personal-info-ever/
Chances are excellent that your data has been stolen as well. And the thieves may hang on to it and not do anything nefarious for years, so it's not like you can breathe a sigh of relief if your credit report comes up clean. What's really fun is that the breach happened months ago, but Equifax's executives were too busy dumping their Equifax stock to let us all know that our information was hanging out there in the dark net. Heads should roll for this. Not just fines and firing -- jail time.
Anyway, if you're wondering what it is you should do about this, this link will help: www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do Consider offering to help relatives who are less savvy about this kind of thing -- I am helping my mother and aunt, for example. A lot of people seem unaware that this breach affects them.
I'm betting some of the first identity theft victims are going to be victims of the hurricanes. So many of them are homeless at the moment or have no power or other busy getting their lives back together -- they'd be more likely not to immediately notice someone messing with their accounts.
arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/09/why-the-equifax-breach-is-very-possibly-the-worst-leak-of-personal-info-ever/
It's a sad reality in 2017 that a data breach affecting 143 million people is dwarfed by other recent hacks—for instance, the ones hitting Yahoo in 2013 and 2014, which exposed personal details for 1 billion and 500 million users respectively; another that revealed account details for 412 million accounts on sex and swinger community site AdultFriendFinder last year; and an eBay hack in 2014 that spilled sensitive data for 145 million users.
The breach Equifax reported Thursday, however, very possibly is the most severe of all for a simple reason: the breath-taking amount of highly sensitive data it handed over to criminals. By providing full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and, in some cases, driver license numbers, it provided most of the information banks, insurance companies, and other businesses use to confirm consumers are who they claim to be. The theft, by criminals who exploited a security flaw on the Equifax website, opens the troubling prospect the data is now in the hands of hostile governments, criminal gangs, or both and will remain so indefinitely.
The breach Equifax reported Thursday, however, very possibly is the most severe of all for a simple reason: the breath-taking amount of highly sensitive data it handed over to criminals. By providing full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and, in some cases, driver license numbers, it provided most of the information banks, insurance companies, and other businesses use to confirm consumers are who they claim to be. The theft, by criminals who exploited a security flaw on the Equifax website, opens the troubling prospect the data is now in the hands of hostile governments, criminal gangs, or both and will remain so indefinitely.
Anyway, if you're wondering what it is you should do about this, this link will help: www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do Consider offering to help relatives who are less savvy about this kind of thing -- I am helping my mother and aunt, for example. A lot of people seem unaware that this breach affects them.
I'm betting some of the first identity theft victims are going to be victims of the hurricanes. So many of them are homeless at the moment or have no power or other busy getting their lives back together -- they'd be more likely not to immediately notice someone messing with their accounts.
