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Equifax takes down web page after reports of new hack

reuters.com

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

#121

Post by Terretta »

bogomipz wrote: post #64
StanislavPetrov wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

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…

This is for something like the security questions when you reset your password except based on your financial records.

  - Do you recognize this street name?
  - Have you bought from this store?
  - How many mortgages did you co-sign?
Answering a set of these “knowledge” based questions is considered statistically probable proof that you’re you.

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

#122

Post by paulddraper »

mattnewton wrote: post #91
noddy1 wrote: post #50

Solution to the Equifax debacle: 1) If the value of the individual damages related to this breach are in excess of the market cap of the equifax company, all company stock should be seized and distributed equally among those affected by the breach. 2) In the future, if a company controls this amount of sensitive data, they should have mandatory breach insurance. This means that they are covered for a government manda…

I don’t understand how that would work, do you mean liquidate the company? If you mean actually take the shares from shareholders, wouldn’t the value of the stock go to near zero? Who would buy stock that could do that? But I agree with the general idea: they should go out of buisiness and whatever they have should be sold to reemburse people affected.

The situation would be massive liability, so you'd probably go into bankruptcy proceedings.

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

#123

Post by bogomipz »

Terretta wrote: post #121
bogomipz wrote: post #64

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…

This is for something like the security questions when you reset your password except based on your financial records. - Do you recognize this street name? - Have you bought from this store? - How many mortgages did you co-sign? Answering a set of these “knowledge” based questions is considered statistically probable proof that you’re you.

But why would this any better or more effective than asking someone to verify information on their previous years tax filings such as specific line items etc?

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

#124

Post by sneak »

Terretta wrote: post #121
bogomipz wrote: post #64

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…

This is for something like the security questions when you reset your password except based on your financial records. - Do you recognize this street name? - Have you bought from this store? - How many mortgages did you co-sign? Answering a set of these “knowledge” based questions is considered statistically probable proof that you’re you.

They’re derived from public records. Anyone who wants to hire the staff for legwork and pay all the individual municipalities for access can compile the same database.

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

#125

Post by Spivak »

nightski wrote: post #115
mulmen wrote: 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?

You consent to X when you do Y, where Y is not explicitly consenting to X, is not a valid argument.

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

#126

Post by Spivak »

idbehold wrote: post #101
leggomylibro wrote: post #93

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

There's really no reason to exclude board members other than spite. If you're going to fine them then just fine them.

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

#127

Post by discoursism »

Posibyte wrote: post #11

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…

I agree that the situation is bad, but I do want to call out a technicality here. You don't have to work with them. Everyone around you chooses to work with them, because they believe that doing so is safer than not. And this impinges on you, because if they have bad info on you, it can hurt your interactions with people around you.

There is little that you personally can do to control the sources others use to gather information about you. That's something that's only within the power of a legal framework. The statement, "I don't want to work with Equifax because I don't trust them," is meaningless, because you do not work with Equifax.

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

#128

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

bogomipz wrote: post #117
bald wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

USPS address forwarding is only good for six months.

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

#129

Post by throw-away-521 »

discoursism wrote: post #127
Posibyte wrote: post #11

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…

I agree that the situation is bad, but I do want to call out a technicality here. You don't have to work with them. Everyone around you chooses to work with them, because they believe that doing so is safer than not. And this impinges on you, because if they have bad info on you, it can hurt your interactions with people around you. There is little that you personally can do to control the sources others use to gathe…

Comments like this are why people stop reading the comment section.
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