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Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

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Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#31
post #3

I am curious what programmer would make such a choice vs. calling random or asking the user. However, while undeniably stupid, hopefully they have rate limiting in place so guessing the PIN would not be feasible even if you know the day the credit freeze was put into place.

Someone probably read an article about how RNGs aren't truly random, and so decided timestamp (which never repeats!) was the right alternative.

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#33

It's time to have a mandatory certification for people who develop critical systems. After such certification, you can consider such an implementation a malpractice, and sue them for it (of course the penalty is paid by the insurance company which sold the malpractice insurance). Doctors, lawyers, and many other professions have such system, why can't we have it as well?

I may agree, but Equifax is by no reasonable definition "a critical system".

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#34

It's time to have a mandatory certification for people who develop critical systems. After such certification, you can consider such an implementation a malpractice, and sue them for it (of course the penalty is paid by the insurance company which sold the malpractice insurance). Doctors, lawyers, and many other professions have such system, why can't we have it as well?

Developers don't control budgets and deadlines at large companies, management does. So what does this "certified" individual do when he's given a project without resources allocated for proper security auditing? Does he intentionally get fired for refusing the assignment? That works if he has bountiful savings, no mortgage, no kids. Surely no unethical contracting company will pick up the job after he leaves...

something something software developers need a union something

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#35
post #33

It's time to have a mandatory certification for people who develop critical systems. After such certification, you can consider such an implementation a malpractice, and sue them for it (of course the penalty is paid by the insurance company which sold the malpractice insurance). Doctors, lawyers, and many other professions have such system, why can't we have it as well?

I may agree, but Equifax is by no reasonable definition "a critical system".

Tell that to people who are denied loans thanks to credit reporting agencies.

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#36

This is embarrassing at this point; a credit authority printing dividends is too busy placating shareholders to even pretend to give a shit about the data of the people who _involuntarily_ have their PII stored on their platform. Whoever files a class action should make a motion such that anyone can purge their PII from a credit authority that's experienced a public hack such that their PII was exposed, or some other…

>purge their PII from a credit authority

I can't see that happening if they do any kind of offsite back up and archiving. They will purge you from the current master, say they purged you, and you'll be none-the-wiser.

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#37
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> are not Engineering/Tech companies Which means each and every line of code was written by the lowest bidder.

Or CEO/CTO's buddy's company

So sad, that is so true these days that it shouldn't even be funny.

A meritocracy is not born when rich corporations (buyers of labor) select vendors (sellers of labor) based on personal connections and not ability to do the job

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#38
post #3

I am curious what programmer would make such a choice vs. calling random or asking the user. However, while undeniably stupid, hopefully they have rate limiting in place so guessing the PIN would not be feasible even if you know the day the credit freeze was put into place.

Someone probably read an article about how RNGs aren't truly random, and so decided timestamp (which never repeats!) was the right alternative.

Of course, two people who happen to request at the same time will get the same key anyway, so it doesn't even solve that problem.

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#39

It's time to have a mandatory certification for people who develop critical systems. After such certification, you can consider such an implementation a malpractice, and sue them for it (of course the penalty is paid by the insurance company which sold the malpractice insurance). Doctors, lawyers, and many other professions have such system, why can't we have it as well?

"Critical systems" pretty vague, and could be used to describe any system that processes payments or other basic things we use.

It's fundamentally different from malpractice in my opinion. In health care malpractice has obvious pieces of data - we know who the doctor is, we know their credentials, we know what information they had and when they had it, we know what they decided, what they prescribed, what they said.

Software engineering is a team based endeavor. Who exactly is responsible for unrecognized vulnerabilities? Everyone? No one? One dude who everyone sorta thought handled security stuff? It's as clear as mud.

Re: Equifax security freeze PINs are the timestamp of when you request the freeze

#40
post #33

It's time to have a mandatory certification for people who develop critical systems. After such certification, you can consider such an implementation a malpractice, and sue them for it (of course the penalty is paid by the insurance company which sold the malpractice insurance). Doctors, lawyers, and many other professions have such system, why can't we have it as well?

I may agree, but Equifax is by no reasonable definition "a critical system".

There are levels of "criticality". Credit monitoring is in a different category from, say, spacecraft or nuclear power plants. But if a security breach can lead easily to identity theft, and therefore to a catastrophic compromise of one's financial stability, that should require some higher level of mandatory certification.
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