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Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

investor.equifax.com

121–130 of 551 posts

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#121
post #93

Suppose Alice is a "victim of identity theft". BigBank gives $10k to Fraudster as a loan, thinking that Alice is the actual recipient. Experian, Transunion and Equifax report this loan as a debt which Alice owes to BigBank. Who is the real victim? The credit reporting agencies want to convince people that the consumer is the victim, and so Alice bears the burden and risk of clearing her name. But it is the credit rep…

Bigbank is the only one in your scenario that actually has monetary loss since they lent out the money and most likely will never get it back. In identity theft, the company has the financial loss. FBI won't investigate unless its over 250k in losses as well.

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#122
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then I'll get six months of free credit monitoring from Equifax? Oh boy!!1! More seriously, this is a breach big enough that Equifax should honestly no longer exist as a company. So call it $100/incident, and I'm happy. Other agencies would still exist, and, although they're just as terrible, it might get them to kick their asses into high gear to fix their security.

The NYT story states that they are already offering this to affected consumers: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/ .

I went there and used the site and guess what? It doesn't work. It just said 'Thank You!' and gave me an enrollment date. It gave me no info as to if I was one of the people affected.

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#123
post #88

How do you know if this affects you?

That's what I came here for too. They have a site (go to Equifax for a notification banner) but providing the information they want just tells me to check back later. From the text I would assume I wasn't impacted, despite the fact that it seems almost everyone who used the site would have been.

Edit: Seems that if you have a date you're impacted. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/6yq36a/equ...

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#124

Can some form of biometrics prevent such incidents going forward?

Biometrics are more useful as an enhancing measure to verify identity but not for gaining access. Once compromised, it's forever.

One can even fake DNA if you have enough time, money and expertise...

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#125
post #93

Suppose Alice is a "victim of identity theft". BigBank gives $10k to Fraudster as a loan, thinking that Alice is the actual recipient. Experian, Transunion and Equifax report this loan as a debt which Alice owes to BigBank. Who is the real victim? The credit reporting agencies want to convince people that the consumer is the victim, and so Alice bears the burden and risk of clearing her name. But it is the credit rep…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c57WKxeELY

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#126
"Customers"? I'm not an Equifax customer - that is, I've never given them my name or any information, I've certainly never paid them for a service. Yet it wouldn't surprise me to learn I'm on their list. Why call me a "customer", I'm the product you sell to banks.

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#127
post #107

Hm, I tried using their tool to see if I've been impacted: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/ Which says it would tell me if I'm likely impacted, but instead it just gives a date where I can enroll in some free product, but no info on whether I'm likely compromised. Anyone have a workaround? This is important to anyone that wants to identify if they've been "pwned."

This site seems shady as hell. As well is the trustedidpartner.com which has no homepage that it refers you to. Seems like a phishing scam.

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#128
post #62

I strongly encourage anyone in the US to put a full credit security freeze on all three credit agencies. When a credit freeze is in place, you still have access to all of your existing loan accounts and whatnot (e.g. credit cards), but lenders cannot access your credit to open new accounts unless you want them to. It's not difficult nor expensive to do, and the freeze lasts until you decide to revoke it. Whenever you…

Anyone know if there's a way to get your free credit report if you can't answer the questions for the free one? The computer says no, and the phone number just sends a letter that says no. I tried to to buy one from my bank, but as far as I can tell they only sell subscriptions...

there is! https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ i use it every year along with being a regular credit karma user.

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#129

I strongly encourage anyone in the US to put a full credit security freeze on all three credit agencies. When a credit freeze is in place, you still have access to all of your existing loan accounts and whatnot (e.g. credit cards), but lenders cannot access your credit to open new accounts unless you want them to. It's not difficult nor expensive to do, and the freeze lasts until you decide to revoke it. Whenever you…

Calling a phone number is easier than signing up by web

https://www.transunion.com/fraud-victim-resource/important- contacts

Re: Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

#130
post #107

Hm, I tried using their tool to see if I've been impacted: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/ Which says it would tell me if I'm likely impacted, but instead it just gives a date where I can enroll in some free product, but no info on whether I'm likely compromised. Anyone have a workaround? This is important to anyone that wants to identify if they've been "pwned."

I did the same - they are offering free identity theft protection to all US Consumers starting on some kind of rolling enrollment date beginning 2017-09-14.
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