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Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#61

Post by InclinedPlane »

rcthompson wrote: post #19
Dirlewanger wrote: post #15

It's all so tiring. It's seriously going to be decades until we get politicians in power that understand the Internet and start holding companies accountable that don't give a shit about security (namely, all of them).

Will it ever happen? When the current generation of children reaches office-holding age, a majority of them may understand internet culture , but I don't think a significant fraction will ever understand the internet in a technical sense.

What is your reasoning behind that? This is seriously one of the dumbest "kids these days" statements I've ever read. Kids will become technologically sophisticated, many kids already are. Many kids will attain higher technical proficiency than you ever had, for example. Why would it be otherwise?

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#62

Post by JoeAltmaier »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #61
rcthompson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will it ever happen? When the current generation of children reaches office-holding age, a majority of them may understand internet culture , but I don't think a significant fraction will ever understand the internet in a technical sense.

What is your reasoning behind that? This is seriously one of the dumbest "kids these days" statements I've ever read. Kids will become technologically sophisticated, many kids already are. Many kids will attain higher technical proficiency than you ever had, for example. Why would it be otherwise?

There are 100 reasons - the innards of technology boxes are less accessible. Programming languages are more abstract, and few dig down to the lower layers (which used to be all there was). Its changing faster and hard to get a mindshare before it all changes again.

I don't think its a 'kids these days' statement at all. More a 'technology these days'

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#63

Post by DoubleCribble »

tomohawk wrote: post #55
pmiller2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck buying a house or a car with cash. I know he's specifically referring to things on the internet, but, I'm sure, Stallman being Stallman, he would say you should follow this rule offline as well.

Why would you borrow money to get a car? It's a depreciating asset. If you have to borrow money to get a car, you're buying too much car. A house, you probably will need leverage for, but at least there's a reasonable chance it will appreciate in value.

If you have the cash and can invest it better (net taxes and fees) than what the cost of the loan is, why not? If you are fortunate enough to qualify for a very low interest loan (usually on a new car), even a very reasonable growth rate on your investments can be sufficient to effectively pay for a couple car payments on the loan each year.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#64

Post by tomohawk »

DoubleCribble wrote: post #63
tomohawk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you borrow money to get a car? It's a depreciating asset. If you have to borrow money to get a car, you're buying too much car. A house, you probably will need leverage for, but at least there's a reasonable chance it will appreciate in value.

If you have the cash and can invest it better (net taxes and fees) than what the cost of the loan is, why not? If you are fortunate enough to qualify for a very low interest loan (usually on a new car), even a very reasonable growth rate on your investments can be sufficient to effectively pay for a couple car payments on the loan each year.

Lets say you own a car 100%. Would you say it is wise to take out a loan on that car to play the stock market? That's the same thing as what your are saying. What if the market goes south? What if your lose your job?

Debt represents risk that makes all of these other setbacks worse. It's better to get that off your back, then invest. If you have car debt, you should first pay that off, then play the stock market with your surplus money.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#65

Post by slumberlust »

organicmultiloc wrote: post #57
rcthompson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will it ever happen? When the current generation of children reaches office-holding age, a majority of them may understand internet culture , but I don't think a significant fraction will ever understand the internet in a technical sense.

The current generation of youngsters seem to be really good at tapping things quickly to get what they want on a phone, but if anything they are less technically literate than previous generations. My niece dropped a programming adjacent class in college because they required them to use real computers "like with keyboards for old people" and she didn't want to learn how to do that. They're also really good at optimi…

Anecdotal, but I've experienced this with my brother who's 15 years apart. Has a phone and can use it, but even when interested in something like emulators, considers using an SD card and selecting some options too difficult.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#66

Post by mdpopescu »

PotionSeller wrote: post #29

I absolutely hate our entire credit system, the lazy way it handles our sensitive info, and the eagerness to extend credit to anyone without scrutiny of their identity. Big incoherent rant incoming: In 2016 someone stole my identity and in about a 1 month period took out tens of credit cards and new bank accounts and phone account which they immediately over drafted. They somehow managed to change the address in my c…

Patrick's article might help here: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#68

Post by harlanji »

hex1848 wrote: post #50

I am tired of people calling me a "victim" of identity theft. I'm not the victim. The companies and government agencies that allowed themselves to be defrauded by someone posing as me are the victims. If you didn't do your due diligence in properly verifying the identity of the person you handed out cash, goods or services too it's on you. That being said, the entire system is broken. I've had 5 cellphones taken out…

Good to know. Concurrent crises also F everything on paper without fam wealth, up but are less common and probably not considered. 800 credit until that, as we start talking about block chain of course. May we always be unchained in these matters, or use a chain model that rolls off old data and keeps an initial value aggregate of old data on the effective block0/genesis or so.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#69

Post by soared »

mieseratte wrote: post #45
Deinos wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. As long as you have a SSN and other identification out there, you are a potential target...

Well, you can't go fully off-the-grid but it makes things a little easier if you're monitoring: * Lack of history makes successful applications less likely * Lack of history makes fraud stand out, any activity is fraud * Since fraud has been identity theft, meaning I have to bitch-and-moan, lack of utilization of credit lends to a stronger story which can help convince folks whereas a serial debtor makes for a less s…

Lack of history kills your credit score and will cost you potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime if you buy a house/car/education/etc

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#70

Post by mieseratte »

astrange wrote: post #56
mieseratte wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you can't go fully off-the-grid but it makes things a little easier if you're monitoring: * Lack of history makes successful applications less likely * Lack of history makes fraud stand out, any activity is fraud * Since fraud has been identity theft, meaning I have to bitch-and-moan, lack of utilization of credit lends to a stronger story which can help convince folks whereas a serial debtor makes for a less s…

Why do you care if someone steals your CC? You don’t have to pay for any of it.

You still have to catch, verify, and dispute those charges... and let's hope you don't have an auto-draft payment setup.

Additionally, it's possible for cards to get locked and that's a PITA to deal with, and god forbid it takes more than a moment to unlock. Hope you have backup cash.

Personally, I'd rather deal with the known hassle (cash) vs. the unknown future hassle (card).

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