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Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

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Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#381
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hmm i called the 3 mentioned here today and all were free. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faq... Equifax — 1-800-349-9960 Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742 TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872

I believe it depends on your state. I'm in California and I had to pay $10 for freezing on Experian and TransUnion, although it was free for Equifax.

Same experience here (also CA), and I was able to freeze all of them online.

It's mildly interesting how different the experience was across the three. Experian gave me the choice between choosing a PIN and getting a generated one, Equifax just gave me a PIN, and for TransUnion I had to choose the PIN (shorter than for the other reports) myself.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#382
post #340

Ok, so credit reporting agency collects sensitive personal and financial data on basically every adult American, loses it to a bunch of criminals and now I have to deal with the consequences? I looked into credit freezes yesterday. This is really a total scam. You have to _call_ each of the three agencies and pay a fee ($5 to $10) each time. If you need to unfreeze your report to make a legitimate credit application…

Just chiming in to say that I was able to freeze all three online yesterday. No calls needed!

How'd you do this without calls? Did it cost?

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#383
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hmm i called the 3 mentioned here today and all were free. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faq... Equifax — 1-800-349-9960 Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742 TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872

I believe it depends on your state. I'm in California and I had to pay $10 for freezing on Experian and TransUnion, although it was free for Equifax.

i filled out the experian form online for free:

https://www.experian.com/fraud/center.html#content-01

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#384

My hope is that this opens a larger discussion on the business practices of these credit bureaus, the kind of data they collect, and ultimately their harm to the public good. As far as I'm concerned, they stole my data first, then they packaged it up neatly and gave it to shady persons. Yes, I'm aware that I "consented" to their collection of my data when I signed up for a credit card, or a car loan, but it's not a s…

Nationalization of credit agencies - or even regulation governing exactly how credit scores are computed, and making that information transparent to the public - would be a huge step forward. Credit-determining algorithms are presently a black box to the public.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#385
post #340

Ok, so credit reporting agency collects sensitive personal and financial data on basically every adult American, loses it to a bunch of criminals and now I have to deal with the consequences? I looked into credit freezes yesterday. This is really a total scam. You have to _call_ each of the three agencies and pay a fee ($5 to $10) each time. If you need to unfreeze your report to make a legitimate credit application…

> So why can't I have a mobile app (or three) for free Yes, and I think it's a bigger question of why we have so little control over or access to our own data in the first place? It's a racket that they monetize our data by selling it to others, then charge us again to access and protect it. And, if you've ever had to go through the pain of having something corrected in a timely fashion, then you know it's doubly-mad…

>Yet, without our data, they'd have no business

Yet, without credit rating agencies, you'd get no loans.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#386
post #340

Ok, so credit reporting agency collects sensitive personal and financial data on basically every adult American, loses it to a bunch of criminals and now I have to deal with the consequences? I looked into credit freezes yesterday. This is really a total scam. You have to _call_ each of the three agencies and pay a fee ($5 to $10) each time. If you need to unfreeze your report to make a legitimate credit application…

You don't have to unfreeze the reports to open a new credit application - the credit app gets rejected (on hold), and the credit issuer will ask you for an auth code. You go to the appropriate agency, log in with the credentials you used when you set up the freeze, provide the request code, they respond with an auth code, you relay the auth code to the credit issuer, credit app progresess.

It basically just forces an auth flow for a credit application, which is quite sane. You can also do the whole process - enrollment and manual authorization - online. It was quite painless for me to do it a couple of years back.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#387
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One scenario would be SSN being massively used by pirates, so companies would stop trusting SSN altogether. Let's hope a startup creates a "proof of identity" service with a photo ID with a chip, a code, and an online certificate for tax purpose.

ah lovely "papers please citizen" and what happen when friend computer with all this proof of identity gets hacked. Maybe the USA needs everyone to have a new ssn and ban with very strict penalties is use by any one other than the state and then only for highly restricted usages as it is in the UK

> ah lovely "papers please citizen" and what happen when friend computer with all this proof of identity gets hacked.

While it doesn't solve the "papers please" aspect:

1. Card holds biometric data of person, plus PIN. Card is the only thing that holds this.

2. All card does is output "yes or no" if you are you.

3. You have or use a reader for authenticating who you are. The reader takes you biometric data (fingerprint scan, face scan, or something else), and has you enter your pin. It takes this info, hashes it, compares to the stored info, and outputs the "yes" or "no" answer.

Very basic thing here. 3-factor, and the data about you is never stored anywhere, and the card/reader combo does the rest. The data about you never leaves the card (in fact, it can't - it would be write only for that data).

We have all the technology to do this today. What we don't have is the will. So it won't be implemented.

I'm not saying the above is perfect - but it is 3-factor (what you are, what you have, what you know), and that is what is needed most. The information stays with the owner on the card. All transactions can only be done with the card on-hand to prove you are you. You can change the PIN at will, maybe even the biometric data - but both are write-only, and can't leave the card. The card can read in data (an image for the biometric data, and the code for the PIN), but all it does is hash that together, compare it to the stored hash, and output a yes/no.

I'm not saying the above is perfect, and I am sure I have forgotten something. But it - or something like it - is what we ultimately need. But we won't get it. Ever.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#388
post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biometric has its own problems. What's a fingerprint but a password you can't change? Any secret can be stolen, bio or otherwise. The key to robust ongoing identity is not a better shared secret, it's a better way of recovering from theft of shared secrets. One way is to have a big trove of non-secret-but-not-public data, like prevous addresses and employers (which is how the credit bureaus sometimes authenticate peo…

What you explained is what global entry, tsa precheck, and nexus programs are.

...except that TSA Precheck doesn't host an OAuth server that my bank can use in lieu of their dumbshit "street you grew up on" nonsense.

But yes, I agree, it's a good point that the government already does this (ditto for lost birth certificates, etc) and this would just be tying the federal identity that they work so hard to verify to a digital one.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#389
Our compliance rules dictate a 24hour window before we must share the data breach, in what world does the top personal data overlords have no obligation to disclose in a shorter window? Maybe had they done that, they wouldn't have had time to cash out their stocks before they tanked upon release.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#390
post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hmm i called the 3 mentioned here today and all were free. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faq... Equifax — 1-800-349-9960 Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742 TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872

What state do you live in? Credit freeze rules vary from state to state.

I'm wholly ignorant to this but I am very curious. Why would it be like that?
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