91–100 of 157 posts
In Sweden your social security number is public information. What's the reason for it being private in the US? Sounds like a horrible thing to rely on for security anyway.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every generation is galvanized by serious injustices. But, it feels like we're far less effective at turning that anger into change; though maybe that's always how it feels at the time. I'm almost sure I once saw a quote from Bill Clinton's press secretary that said something like "We knew that if we could survive the first 5 days of a bad story, it would get dropped." That perspective solidified for me during the Oc…
cynicism == obedience
You can be cynical of the government and the regulators and still do something about it. If you are a landlord and running a credit check don't use Equifax. Maybe this will open the door for startup in the space.
I will be blunt, and I am very incensed by this. My comments ... https://twitter.com/hpcjoe/status/906549917509980160 This is an extinction level event for Equifax. They need to be disassembled, their stored data destroyed correctly and securely, their negligent officers charged. This isn't an accident. You don't surface 0.134 BILLION bits of PII without some sort of criminal level incompetence. Any organization that…
Every generation is galvanized by serious injustices. But, it feels like we're far less effective at turning that anger into change; though maybe that's always how it feels at the time. I'm almost sure I once saw a quote from Bill Clinton's press secretary that said something like "We knew that if we could survive the first 5 days of a bad story, it would get dropped." That perspective solidified for me during the Oc…
There is an entire industry keen to get people unconstructively angry about unrealistic threats so they can sell gold and ammunition.
Just a note: I tried the same thing and was told my information was NOT impacted. I suspect the reason for this might be that I froze my info years ago. In some way they must be screening against people who are frozen, or I got lucky.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every generation is galvanized by serious injustices. But, it feels like we're far less effective at turning that anger into change; though maybe that's always how it feels at the time. I'm almost sure I once saw a quote from Bill Clinton's press secretary that said something like "We knew that if we could survive the first 5 days of a bad story, it would get dropped." That perspective solidified for me during the Oc…
What can you do when the businesses own the lawmakers? Outside of violence I'm not sure exactly who has the power to get justice here. I honestly think that criminally they are going to get a slap on the wrist if anything. The majority of damages will come from civil suits.
The reaction here seems pretty over the top to me. Leaking a bunch of private information is bad, I guess. As a former federal employee, my SSN/etc. were leaked in the OPM breach a couple of years ago. So far, it’s hard zero repercussions for me (or anybody else I know). There are many layers of defense mechanisms in place. It’s not like just having some numbers let’s you do whatever you want. The US banking system h…
Fraudulent charges on an existing account is not the concern when someone has your SSN and other high-value information - it's the ability for someone else to open an account in your name that you have no knowledge of.
The reaction here seems pretty over the top to me. Leaking a bunch of private information is bad, I guess. As a former federal employee, my SSN/etc. were leaked in the OPM breach a couple of years ago. So far, it’s hard zero repercussions for me (or anybody else I know). There are many layers of defense mechanisms in place. It’s not like just having some numbers let’s you do whatever you want. The US banking system h…
(although that appears to be ordinary incompetence)
The reaction here seems pretty over the top to me. Leaking a bunch of private information is bad, I guess. As a former federal employee, my SSN/etc. were leaked in the OPM breach a couple of years ago. So far, it’s hard zero repercussions for me (or anybody else I know). There are many layers of defense mechanisms in place. It’s not like just having some numbers let’s you do whatever you want. The US banking system h…
> If I ever saw an unusual charge on my credit cards, I’d just get it refunded. How much actual harm is going to come out of this? My suspicion is not that much. Fraudulent charges on an existing account is not the concern when someone has your SSN and other high-value information - it's the ability for someone else to open an account in your name that you have no knowledge of.
And here is the really sad bit, when you tell the debt collector that its a bogus account and not you, by law they have to stop hassling you but instead of 'retiring' the debt they just resell it to another debt collector to get back some of the money they paid for it. So the cycle doesn't stop.
I will be blunt, and I am very incensed by this. My comments ... https://twitter.com/hpcjoe/status/906549917509980160 This is an extinction level event for Equifax. They need to be disassembled, their stored data destroyed correctly and securely, their negligent officers charged. This isn't an accident. You don't surface 0.134 BILLION bits of PII without some sort of criminal level incompetence. Any organization that…
The same is not true of software-driven systems. There are no licensed developers, no regulatory body determining what tools must be made available, no guarantee of primacy of technical engineering concerns over business management. If a software engineer says "it needs more testing" or even "there is a bug that will kill people" and the CEO says "ship it", it ships and the courts will do nothing. This was proven to be true even in cases where incompetent management results in bad software that gets people killed in the case against Toyota with their "unintended acceleration" due to a firmware bug that would have been caught immediately if the developers had static analysis tools.
Companies fight against the establishment of any sort of standards because it would reduce their profit margins. Developers fight against the establishment of any sort of standards because it would raise the barrier to entry in the field and no matter who the standards body consists of, they will select standards which people disagree with, they will be reluctant and slow to change or update them, etc. Both sides are right. But the alternative is companies having free reign up to and including incompetence of the degree which gets people killed with no accountability. People are overall very bad at decisions between two scenarios with clear negatives on both sides. They feel entitled to a 'clean' option and are uncomfortable with saying "I embrace the negatives and accept the burden of working hard to try to minimize their harm in order to gain the benefits of this option." Accepting the negatives implies taking some responsibility for bringing them to fruition and no one wants to be responsible for that - even if the alternative is worse. Not every decision is easy.