Yes, this was discussed earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15456221
And debunked...it wasn't a hack of the Equifax web site, but a malware package delivered by 3rd party analytics company, Fireclick.
Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
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Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#32We're just getting into an era where everything is hackable. We haven't even begun to understand the ramifications...! Privacy has been dead for a long time (did it ever exist?), but we're only just now being confronted with what this means. We have a choice to make: make the world work for everyone, or perish!
I agree: I think we have been blessed with a long period of innocence concerning the security of our services and devices. A period that is now coming to an end with increased attacks by increasingly powerful entities.
The dot-com-bubble showed us that businesses should not be valued simply because they leverage hot new technology (hold your AI comparisons...). These high-profile hacks and security failures will hopefully show us that businesses should not be considered secure simply because they stack up to other measures of value.
I would hope that in the future, a fault in a company's infrastructure security is considered as seriously as a fault in its core business model.
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#33it's amazing how much the finance industry can get away with. like honest-to-goodness amazing. it's really impressive how these people can have such a death-grip on society. honestly, i'm more curious than mad. how is such a thing even possible? i mean, wow.
The big moneybags are always above the law.
This seems to become one of the biggest problems of modern civilization. Until it's fixed, all sorts of issues like this, and bigger, will continue to occur.
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
freeze your credit report with Equifax, and then if any company requests it, they'll be denied (because you have to request it be unfrozen for them to receive it). If any company uses Equifax, you'll then be denied credit or they'll ask you to unfreeze it.. either way, you can complain to them, and make it clear you won't work with Equifax. Of course, in practice, this will mean you'll get denied credit from any comp…
Unfortunately you have no way to protect your tax returns from Equifax, which now has a contract with the IRS thanks to the infinite wisdom of our government. http://fortune.com/2017/10/04/equifax-irs-contract-hackers/
This contract is a renewal of a previous contract with Equifax (which is why it was a "critical service that couldn't lapse"), and it involves Equifax giving data to the IRS, not the IRS giving your tax returns to Equifax.
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#35it's amazing how much the finance industry can get away with. like honest-to-goodness amazing. it's really impressive how these people can have such a death-grip on society. honestly, i'm more curious than mad. how is such a thing even possible? i mean, wow.
Well, these guys are simply too big to fail. Equifax cannot go bust, otherwise loads of consumer credit (mortgages, car loans etc) would freeze up, causing huge harm to the economy. The market likely knows this, hence the stable stock price.
Genuine question, how are Equifax's services functionally different from the other credit bureaus? What is to stop the federal gov from shutting them down to protect national security forcing any business partners to move to the other providers.
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#36I feel like this has to do with Equifax basically not being punished in any major way over the last breach. Their stocks are still priced reasonably well, most of their board is still intact, and US citizens are still required to work with them for credit reasons. And the worst part is, I have no idea how I as a person could say "I don't want to do work with Equifax because I don't trust them." And if anybody has sug…
> Their stocks are still priced reasonably well,
Exactly. And everyone is watching and learning a lesson from it - "If this goes unpunished, heck, we can get away with it too, screw all the security mumbo jumbo"
In an investing and finance forum I saw people were gearing up to buy Equifax after the breach was announced. The idea was that price would dip then it would go back up. Maybe enough people did that.
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#37I feel like this has to do with Equifax basically not being punished in any major way over the last breach. Their stocks are still priced reasonably well, most of their board is still intact, and US citizens are still required to work with them for credit reasons. And the worst part is, I have no idea how I as a person could say "I don't want to do work with Equifax because I don't trust them." And if anybody has sug…
> Their stocks are still priced reasonably well, Exactly. And everyone is watching and learning a lesson from it - "If this goes unpunished, heck, we can get away with it too, screw all the security mumbo jumbo" In an investing and finance forum I saw people were gearing up to buy Equifax after the breach was announced. The idea was that price would dip then it would go back up. Maybe enough people did that.
Stock price seems to be the driving factor for corporate change in America. Until that price dips, or tanks, companies appear to use that as a barometer of their behavior.
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#38Yes, this was discussed earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15456221 And debunked...it wasn't a hack of the Equifax web site, but a malware package delivered by 3rd party analytics company, Fireclick.
Not exactly. Equifax has hardcoded references to an akamai cache of a domain (hints.netflame.cc) in their own pages[1].
That domain was owned by Fireclick (né Digital River) at one time, but changed ownership on November 15, 2016. The current owner is a Thai national using a personal Gmail address as the registration info.
Equifax should be responsible for what 3rd party domains it is referencing in their pages.
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
freeze your credit report with Equifax, and then if any company requests it, they'll be denied (because you have to request it be unfrozen for them to receive it). If any company uses Equifax, you'll then be denied credit or they'll ask you to unfreeze it.. either way, you can complain to them, and make it clear you won't work with Equifax. Of course, in practice, this will mean you'll get denied credit from any comp…
Doesn't this require you to trust Equifax to enforce and honor the freeze? I think the solution is "I don't want my report or any of my data in any sort of control or possession of Equifax". Where is that solution?
What is "your data" exactly? And in the limit, how far does this go?
Here's a question: who owns your drivers license? Here's a hint: it isn't you. Can you "own" you mailing address? Copyright and trademark it, make everyone ask permission from you before they write it down? What about your salary? Should your employer have to ask every time they use your salary number in some way, say in aggregate statistics or reporting?
What about information about how you interact with your credit card company? Who owns that, you, or the credit card company? Do the two of you have some kind of joint ownership?
We've made some of these decisions about health data and it has far-reaching consequences, some of them undesirable. It's also been very difficult to enforce. Do you want to extend that kind of regime to every piece of information about a person? Society might grind to a halt, we would be inundated with virtual and physical pop-ups asking "your landlord wants access to your phone number to place a call to you, will you allow it?" And what process would mediate this access control anyway, and how would we trust it?
Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack
#40Yes, this was discussed earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15456221 And debunked...it wasn't a hack of the Equifax web site, but a malware package delivered by 3rd party analytics company, Fireclick.
Don't worry, we only blindly pull in and execute "good" third-party code in your browser.