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2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

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Re: 2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

#11

Post by plorg »

Lendal wrote: post #4

Are there 2.9B SSNs?

They are claiming this is from a data aggregator called National Public Data, so it probably originated in many other places and contains a variety of different information depending on the source. So it includes SSNs for some people, but not every record is necessarily connected to a SSN.

Re: 2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

#12

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

When can we move away from SSNs being a pseudo secret? They have obviously been leaked everywhere at this point.

Relatedly, is there an up to date guide on how I am supposed to freeze my credit? Last I looked, it required handing over all of my PII, which I found super distasteful, but I should accept none of it is secret and do the minimum to protect myself from ~financial institutions falling for fraud~ identity theft.

Re: 2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

#13

Post by ryandrake »

kevindamm wrote: post #2

At what point can we start demanding that SSNs be redefined? I've lost track of how many data breaches I've unwittingly been the victim of, and I'm usually more careful and paranoid than most.

We "just" need to stop pretending they are secret like passwords and using them to authenticate that someone is who they say they are. Banks should not be issuing loans based on a bunch of personal information (including SSN) that the collected and concluded "Yup, that data matches itself--therefore you are actually you!"

Re: 2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

#14

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

I am not sure how to approach it anymore. Frankly, since equifax breach and settlement I mostly gave up on hoping for any real change[1]. Whatever the catalyst will be for a shake up, it clearly won't be another -- sufficiently big -- breach. I was too optimistic about that.

It will need to be something public, scandalous and, ideally, affecting someone powerful enough to effect change and privacy-conscious enough to be pissed off enough to want to do anything about it.

edit:[1]https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/illinois-governor-a...

edit2: By scandalous I mean something that average person cares about. Based on initial reaction to this particular breach, I do not think it meets the criteria.

Re: 2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

#15

Post by mbStavola »

It's amazing to me how just getting your name and SSN leaked opens you up to much risk. It's equally amazing how this is a decades-long problem that hasn't been addressed.

I have to wonder what systems other countries use for identifying citizens and how secure they are compared to SSNs.

Re: 2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

#16

Post by diggan »

torlok wrote: post #10

Was this US only? I'm from EU, and since yesterday I received 2 threat e-mails in broken English with part of my phone number linked. Never had anything like that happen before.

My oldest email has been exposed in 37 data breaches (so far) according to haveibeenpwned.com, not receiving more spam and/or threats than usual today or yesterday.

Re: 2.9B hit in one of largest data breaches; full names and SSNs exposed

#18

Post by vkou »

jmclnx wrote: post #3

>As reported by Bloomberg, news of this massive new data breach was revealed as part of a class action lawsuit that was filed at the beginning of this month. I am so looking forward to getting my 2.99 USD check from this suit. Of course I need to apply for that check via an on-line site and give them all my personal information. Great time to be alive.

You don't get a check, you get a gift card for a credit monitoring service that you will never use because all your data leaks all the time already.

Motherfuckers asked my wife her SSN when she was getting a store card the other week. Not a credit card, a store card.

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