Live data from Hacker News

Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

reuters.com

111–120 of 143 posts

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#111
post #20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you know punish the managers for once instead of the footsoldiers... When Wells Fargo had their credit scandal the salesmen shouldn't have been punished, their managers should've. These things start at the top. When deadlines are pushed onto you, you don't have time to write unit tests, refactor, update dependencies.

Licensing empowers the engineer to refuse to do something that violates sound engineering practice according to the license and have legal recourse against retaliation. It isn't perfect, and the imbalance of power will certainly still be an issue. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

> Licensing empowers the engineer to refuse to do something that violates sound engineering practice according to the license and have legal recourse against retaliation.

It would just put most legal liabilities on engineers vs the org. It's a great way to protect management, that's the only thing it's going to do. That's exactly how dumb traders end up being scapegoated with each financial scandal. Any engineer who would dare report any wrong doing would be blacklisted for life from the IT industry.

Business like Equifax already have legal requirements at the org level, let's not shift all responsibility onto engineers.

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#112
post #36

I 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.

> The idea was that price would dip then it would go back up. Maybe enough people did that.

It's always the idea, unfortunately you can never predict if it's going to bounce enough to go back up hard, or if it's going to bounce and go down again deep...

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#113
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still over $100 a share.

Absolute price has nothing to do with company value. For example BRK.A is $279,383.00 a share.

I read it as "stock should be 0, as they should be shutdown."

But please, do explain economics for us. We really need to hear about markets again. #coolmemebro

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It pretty clearly is, I just mean that in reality that sort of thing isn't going to be prosecuted or pursued.

That is incorrect. The SEC regularly pursue people for insider trading [1]. It's one of the things that's normally pretty clear cut and hard for politicians to lean on. 1. https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-212.html

I guess I'm just getting jaded about the scale; when you reach a certain dollar amount, there don't seem to be consequences at all. I'm sure I would get busted for insider trading if I tried it, but my company's CEO damned sure wouldn't.

Not that it'd be easy since you have to schedule big sales like that with the feds in the first place, but I mean...come on. The sheer blatancy.

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#115
post #96
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 repo…

"My data" is data about me because without me it wouldn't exist.

You can essentially opt out. Just never apply for credit in your life. Good luck.

At the end of the day you do consent to this through participating in the banking/credit system.

While the data may not exist without you, you are not the one recording it. Why does it not make sense to assign ownership to the one recording/creating the data in the first place?

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the Feds could simply seize the company and issue treasury bonds to shareholders to cover the costs of their stake at the market's price. Eminent domain, or whatever legal term is latin for "we have the guns." Then, yeah, liquidate everything and distribute the proceeds amongst the victims. It would be expensive, but...so what? The budget is $2T, and if the fine vastly outweighs the value of the company,…

> issue treasury bonds to shareholders who aren't members of the board

Yeah, they'd obviously have to issue a different sort of bonds for the board.

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#117
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your link: >"The Internal Revenue Service signed a $7.25 million contract with Equifax last month. The no-bid contract, first reported by Politico, is for Equifax to provide the IRS with taxpayer and personal identity verification services. The contract stated that Equifax (EFX, -1.34%) was the only company capable of providing these services to the IRS, and it was deemed a “critical” service that couldn’t lapse…

AFAIK in the US, you're not required to check in with local authorities when you move to a new city (contrary to many European countries where you need to notify them, else you'll be fined), so there's no official register the IRS could use to find all taxpayers... maybe that's the background.

The IRS can use the previous year's filing address for all tax payers. They should be able to use the US Post Office to get address updates.

In the US people generally file a change of address when they move in order to automatically receive mail at their new address.

The fact that the IRS granted Equifax a 7 million dollar contract amounts to the US tax payer paying Equifax to put their identity at risk and cause them harm. It really boggles the mind.

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#118
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My data" is data about me because without me it wouldn't exist.

You can essentially opt out. Just never apply for credit in your life. Good luck. At the end of the day you do consent to this through participating in the banking/credit system. While the data may not exist without you, you are not the one recording it. Why does it not make sense to assign ownership to the one recording/creating the data in the first place?

Because I am the one carrying the risk, not the people collecting the data.

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#119
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can essentially opt out. Just never apply for credit in your life. Good luck. At the end of the day you do consent to this through participating in the banking/credit system. While the data may not exist without you, you are not the one recording it. Why does it not make sense to assign ownership to the one recording/creating the data in the first place?

Because I am the one carrying the risk, not the people collecting the data.

[deleted]

Re: Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

#120

Earlier 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…

Freezing your credit can come back to bite you if you'd like to buy a house, lease an apartment, buy a car, or open a new credit card within the next 6 months.

Only if you aren't willing to save the money for that up front. Of course most people prefer to get the stuff they want when they want it instead of when they can afford it (and going from renter to owner paying a mortgage does tend to be cheaper), but if you really wanted to, you could live without credit.
Post reply on HN