Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack • Hacker News Board

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#171

Post by ericd » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:05 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #96

billh wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This class action will likely be settled in the same way the Ticketmaster case was settled ... with a coupon book good for 2 free credit reports.

Probably for good reason. $500 per class member is an insanely high damages estimate. 99.9% of people will suffer zero damages because their identities will not be stolen. Even the ones who do have their identities stolen will likely be made whole by the credit card companies. The real damages here are going to be to the banks and credit card companies that will have to absorb the costs of all the fraud. As to the Ti…

Do you think that the FCRA punitive damages ($100-$1000 per person) might apply here?

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#172

Post by spiznnx » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:05 PM UTC

slowmovintarget wrote: post #152

Chaebixi wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in small claims court. If ~15% of the class does this, they are out of business, and lawyers don't get a dime of the $1000. IANAL, but can't you only sue for actual damages not hypothetical damages? According to this [1] your identity with SSN is only worth $30 on the black market. To get $1000 out of them you'd probab…

Isn't Equifax protected from the class action by a few levels of arbitration clauses?

I never signed anything with Equifax, but they still have my information. I'm sure the great majority of the ~140M records they have are in a similar position.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#173

Post by floatrock » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:05 PM UTC

Dowwie wrote: post #97

Consider the possibility that the hackers were agents of a sovereign power, such as one who has been hurt by economic sanctions and has a history of cyber warfare. This state could decide to respond to US economic aggression by using the compromised information of hundreds of millions of Americans to engage in fraudulent activity. This event is leading me to about how social security numbers can no longer serve the r…

That was the threat when the OPM got hacked a few years back -- anyone who ever had a background investigation done for a federal job now had their background info in some russian or chinese database dump. With that level of detail, you could start blackmailing some Lockheed or Raytheon employees until they leak some stealth fighter radar secrets to make the monthly false homeloan headaches go away.

I don't think the next world war will be fought with nukes, it will be an economic fight. Leak a few corporate secrets [1] to stall the economy, use the OPM dump and this Equifax dump to originate enough false loans to seize up the financial sector, then cause havok across the electrical grid [2] like you did during the annexation of Crimea just to make sure they stay down.

We've been blind to the other half of the threat of centralized information repositories... the 1984 Big Brother scenario assumes the holder of the information wants to control the citizens, but we never considered the information might have leaked to an actor who wants to destroy the citizens.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Pictures_hack [2]: https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-gain-switch-flipping-acc...

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#174

Post by g051051 » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:06 PM UTC

simonswords82 wrote: post #158

It's always seemed odd to me that Experian and Equifax have the upside of being both arbitrarily in charge of so much data and wield ridiculous power, and yet somehow they're still largely independent and profit making. I'll watch the outcome of this breach with interest. It strikes me that at the very least credit rating agencies should be non-profit and very closely monitored by government. This will include ensuri…

You're what's called a "consumer", as in "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau". You're only a "customer" of Equifax if you purchase one of their products.

The CRAs don't make or break your credit history, that's the businesses that supply information to them. The CRAs are aggregators, and just report what their members tell them.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#175

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:06 PM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #132

heartbreak wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of the identities have been stolen. It’s a matter of whether they’re used at this point.

True, but in the US you can not really sue for possible harms. You can only sue for actual harms which can be remedied by the court. Leaking your information isn't a harm the court can remedy. Abuse of the leaked information is a harm the court can remedy.

[deleted]

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#176

Post by ethanwillis » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:07 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #142

joering2 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many time the thiefs are actually caugh. If he she admits to stealing your data in this leak AND you are damaged, then here is your proof.

I think it's unlikely you'll actually be damaged. Any real financial impact would have been reversed by your bank. Maybe a fee or two that two parties argue about who should reimburse your for it, however I can't see stuff like that adding up to $1,000 (or even $100).

Well about 2 months ago (when the leak was happening apparently) I had false information showing up on my credit report for a Comcast debt.

The weird thing is the Comcast debt couldn't have actually been mine. As the date of the debt was smack dab in the middle of when I had service with Comcast before switching to ATT.

Now, during this period I tried to refinance my home and was denied due to a low score with Equifax. I pulled my EQ 2 weeks before trying to qualify and there was nothing. Then I found that after I was denied and pulled it again of course. I submitted a challenge on it, and it was removed within 2 weeks but the damage was already done.

So would this count as real damages?

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#177

Post by actsasbuffoon » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:07 PM UTC

platypii wrote: post #57

stcredzero wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in small claims court. There's usually no enforcement of penalties in small claims court.

Submit it to debt collectors and put it on Equifax's credit report

And because their security will probably still be a joke after this is all over, someone can hack their database again to ensure they actually put the claim in there.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#178

Post by spiznnx » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:08 PM UTC

pfarnsworth wrote: post #131

ovao wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why $1,000? And how would you prove damages equaling that amount?

$15/month for identify protection/tracking X 12 X 40 years. You can't even dispute $15/month, since that's how much Equifax charges for their identity protection, so that must be how much it's worth since they caused these damages. That makes it more like $7200 in damages, not including the cost of money over time, inflation, etc.

I'm sure equifax would respond by offering you free credit monitoring for life (which costs them nothing to do)

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#179

Post by pdshrader » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:10 PM UTC

bishnu wrote: post #37

It seems that checking to see if you're affected by the Equifax breach waives your right to sue Equifax: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/07/i-called-equifax-to-find-o... No idea how ironclad such a clause would be,k though.

The Attorney General of NY says it's not:

https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/status/906195350532304896

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#180

Post by floatrock » Fri, Sep 08, 2017, 6:10 PM UTC

simonswords82 wrote: post #158

It's always seemed odd to me that Experian and Equifax have the upside of being both arbitrarily in charge of so much data and wield ridiculous power, and yet somehow they're still largely independent and profit making. I'll watch the outcome of this breach with interest. It strikes me that at the very least credit rating agencies should be non-profit and very closely monitored by government. This will include ensuri…

> It strikes me that at the very least credit rating agencies should be non-profit and very closely monitored by government. This will include ensuring security best practice is followed.

Tell that to people riding their free class-action credit monitoring from when their OPM background investigation records got leaked to the russians or chinese thanks to the government's "security best practices".