T2,
My large credit credit card had allowed me to bill it months after my active card expired. I did not renew it, or call that I had received the new card., Yet, they continued to allow me to bill it. When I did call with regrets of my drunken play, the answer I got was that the billing account was one that was common to my account, so they let it process. It took months before they declined the card number. How is this any different that a hacker that knows my #s

Update on Equifax - Why the Data Breach Happened In One Sentence

The breach happened because Equifax security staff failed to promptly install a security fix to a flaw found in a web application tool used by many major corporations, the industry group that oversees the open-source software said earlier this week.

Hackers took advantage of a window when the flaw was known but not fixed, which lasted two months, to penetrate the company's digital defenses.

Equifax faces at least 23 proposed class-action lawsuits over the breach and a federal probe from two agencies. Its stock has lost more than a third of its value since the breach was disclosed.

Two top Equifax security executives fired effective immediately. In addition, Equifax could lose its government contract with the Social Security Administration

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-e...pany-effective-immediately-idUSKCN1BQ2WN

Personally, I think Equifax should be fined and sued out of business. There's no excuse for something like this to happen, EVER. It's just one more reason why I think computers that store or work with sensitive data should never, EVER, be connected to the web or be networked using anything other than wired connections. If an employee needs data that's physically located at another location, a licensed, bonded courier can bring it on a flash drive or other medium. People will just have to get used to not being able to open new credit cards or take out loans instantly online or in a store.

The whole "Cloud" thing has made data storage so much cheaper that companies are just willing to risk there ever being a breach (IMHO). The top people at Equifax will find some lower level managers to scapegoat, the media and congress will accept it, and it will be business as usual.

In case it hasn't been mentioned - they also stole the credit card numbers of over 200,000 people

If it was healthcare organization they could have been fine $50,000 per person's data stolen. So 143,000,000 x $50,000 = $7.15 trillion. But I'm sure Equifax is "too big to fail" or at least allowed to. I believe the top two IT security people were fired but I'm pretty sure if its anything like our organization administration has until recently put information security as a low priority. In our team meeting last week we even discussed what was left to protect at this point other then patient records.

Financial Institutions need to have an equivalent to HIPAA legislation. Unfortunately, as we have seen many times, they answer to no one.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/laws-regulations/index.html

"What you'll need to open an account:

A few minutes to complete this form
Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)
Foreign tax ID, passport, or visa number (if you're not a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S.)
Employer's name and address"


Just an example of what can happen when someone has the above info. About to open an investment account and have all the required info needed. Fund the account with stolen credit card, make huge trades, take huge losses, and slip back into the shadows. The real person is then hit with the losses. Prove you weren't the one doing the trading?

See here's the problem facing these innocent companies, how do they know that YOU aren't a criminal yourself? Just because you have your ID stolen, allegedly, doesn't automatically make you an upstanding citizen. How do they know you haven't just taken advantage of the identity theft, make some bad deals, then claim it wasn't you?

If anyone wants to brush this off be my guest. The time and frustration of proving your innocence isn't worth it.

I froze my credit and my wife's credit at all 3 credit bureaus and that's the way it will stay

"In a statement to Bloomberg, Equifax said the March hack was not related to the one that exposed personal and financial data of up to 143 million Americans between May and July, but sources told Bloomberg that the same intruders were responsible for both breaches."

So despite being hacked in March, Equifax continued using the software with the flaw that allowed the cyber criminals entry

An update on this situation...

Equifax awarded $7.25 million dollar contract with IRS to detect fraud

Can't make this stuff up!

WTF, to award a guilty Corp over this.

Someone in Congress must have gotten a huge BJ and cash from some Equifax executive.

only have 1 more credit freeze to go for younger son - it's taken several weeks to get the credit frozen for all my family members.

As a result of that breach (and other breaches over the past 5 years including email breaches) it's become crystal clear that your good credit needs to be good frozen credit



If you're a U.S. citizen or even of the UK it is almost a certainty that your credit information will begin to be sold on the dark web either this year or next - after that you stand an excellent chance of having your identity stolen.

Maybe we should all just go and destroy our credit right now. All of us, come on, let's do it. I'm going to DIsneyland ! Then I'm buying a little place in Aspen. All on my Visa.

Don't worry your credit might be destroyed soon enough - you'll get a letter one day asking you to pay your first installment on the vehicle you just purchased last month or the IRS tells you they already sent you your refund check except this time it's going to another address

I already have spent hours doing the freeze thing for me and my family. I am at the point now where I don't worry about it.

I get this guy to freeze my credit,

then

it's a shame we have to do that but the cyber crimes are not getting better - the security situation of our identities has not improved - it took a curve downhill and social security numbers are no longer a secure form of identity

That looks like my CPA. Oh, no !

Equifax incompetent?

When was the last time you talked to supervisor in ANY government department?