Equifax Hack

[Au165]

This is a far more serious issue than is being reported, but the Hurricane is dominating the news cycle right now. You are talking about potentially half the countries personal information being compromised. This could be one of the biggest moments in the U.S. financial system in the last 100 years, you are talking about possibly needing a reset of the way we have identified citizens (SS number) for the last 80 years. There are so many moving parts here, but it highlights that no private institution should be holding this much personal information about the citizens of our country. It appears it happened 6 weeks ago and in that time top executives sold off millions in stock before releasing the news. I am guessing Equifax will cease to exist soon, but I have to wonder if any of the credit reporting agencies should anymore.

It almost seems a forgone conclusion that all of the credit monitoring companies will be on capital hill soon to talk through this matter. Some people from Equifax will be going to jail to I am assuming...but not for long of course.

[Yojimbo]

(09-08-2017, 12:12 PM)Au165 Wrote: This is a far more serious issue than is being reported, but the Hurricane is dominating the news cycle right now. You are talking about potentially half the countries personal information being compromised. This could be one of the biggest moments in the U.S. financial system in the last 100 years, you are talking about possibly needing a reset of the way we have identified citizens (SS number) for the last 80 years. There are so many moving parts here, but it highlights that no private institution should be holding this much personal information about the citizens of our country. It appears it happened 6 weeks ago and in that time top executives sold off millions in stock before releasing the news. I am guessing Equifax will cease to exist soon, but I have to wonder if any of the credit reporting agencies should anymore.

It almost seems a forgone conclusion that all of the credit monitoring companies will be on capital hill soon to talk through this matter. Some people from Equifax will be going to jail to I am assuming...but not for long of course.

Well you and I agree those executives that sold stock should be punished. I have absolutely no faith in the SEC that they will pursue an appropriate course of action. Probably just make the guys pay a fine of less than the money they made on the sales and make them pinky swear to never do it again.

My penalty would be, find out how much they made on the sale of stock and fine them double that amount.

[Yojimbo]

So they are offering a year of free credit monitoring for those affected. Fine print, if you sign up for that, you can't sue or join a class action lawsuit.

[Au165]

(09-08-2017, 04:39 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: So they are offering a year of free credit monitoring for those affected. Fine print, if you sign up for that, you can't sue or join a class action lawsuit.

Many lawyers have already said it won't cover this. You can't waiver away gross negligence, so as more information comes out after people agree to this it will most likely constitute gross negligence meaning any "agreement" reached before the major facts known won't matter.

[SunsetBengal]

(09-08-2017, 05:15 PM)Au165 Wrote: Many lawyers have already said it won't cover this. You can't waiver away gross negligence, so as more information comes out after people agree to this it will most likely constitute gross negligence meaning any "agreement" reached before the major facts known won't matter.

Besides, who wants credit "monitoring"?  

[6andcounting]

(09-08-2017, 04:39 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Fine print, if you sign up for that, you can't sue or join a class action lawsuit.

Even without that disclaimer I feel like sending them my name and social security info through their website would be a poor decision.

[SunsetBengal]

(09-08-2017, 08:56 PM)6andcounting Wrote: Even without that disclaimer I feel like sending them my name and social security info through their website would be a poor decision.

What do you mean, send it?  They already have it, if you have ever bought anything on credit or got approved for a loan from any legit lending institution.   Thus my joke about "who wants credit monitoring", they already monitor everyone's credit..  And then they act like they are going to "give" you a service that they already do..

[6andcounting]

(09-08-2017, 09:00 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: What do you mean, send it?  They already have it, if you have ever bought anything on credit or got approved for a loan from any legit lending institution.   Thus my joke about "who wants credit monitoring", they already monitor everyone's credit..  And then they act like they are going to "give" you a service that they already do..

143 million people got hacked. To see if you are 1 of those 143 million you just have to send them your name and social. If you weren't part of that original 143 million, now you are.

[*PhilHos*]

Due to my recent job loss and move, I signed up for their service ... unintentionally. I went to get my one free annual credit check to see how bad it is and so I can better prepare for obstacles to getting a new job and finding a new residence. Apparently, as eagle-eyed as I am, I still missed that I was signing up for their credit monitoring service at a $30/month rate.

Because I was using a family member's credit card (didn't have one of my own at the time), I didn't know about it 'til they saw it 5 months later. I was able to get 1 month refunded and they dropped me down to their free service, but still f** Equifax.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

Always thought it was silly we all agreed to participate in a system where 3 companies control so much about your life and your ability to do much of anything.

Hopefully this will lead it to become less centralized, but it's doubtful. "Too big to fail" comes to mind. They'll go about making a noise in the government, a couple people will get some golden parachutes, and some meaninglessly small fines will be levied. Some lawsuit will happen, the only people to get significant money out of it will be the lawyers. Meanwhile rank and file people will spend the rest of their lives trying to recover from tanked credit scores.

[Millhouse]

(09-09-2017, 11:37 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Always thought it was silly we all agreed to participate in a system where 3 companies control so much about your life and your ability to do much of anything.

Hopefully this will lead it to become less centralized, but it's doubtful. "Too big to fail" comes to mind. They'll go about making a noise in the government, a couple people will get some golden parachutes, and some meaninglessly small fines will be levied. Some lawsuit will happen, the only people to get significant money out of it will be the lawyers. Meanwhile rank and file people will spend the rest of their lives trying to recover from tanked credit scores.

The thing is I bet a majority of people that got their info stolen through them didn't even know they had it in the first place. If anyone went to a business like a Kohls, Target, Best Buy, car dealerships, etc. to try to set up a line of credit to purchase something or get that in-house credit card, then chances are they used Equifax to run the credit report with. I used them when I worked with an oil company to set up lines of credit with customers that wanted deliveries on credit.

The crazy thing is this doesnt seem to be like a top priority by the government to deal with. Ffs this was basically a major e-terrorist attack on people's vital information. Yet its being treated very ho-humly by those in power. Has anyone heard a word about it from Congress or the White House? I know some committee in Congress will have a hearing, like that will do any good. Havent heard anything from the White House though. I guess they dont consider it a big deal, as they would hate to slam a corporation.

[Bengalzona]

One of the best ways to protect yourself against identity theft is a credit freeze and thaw:

http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/#.WbQd23cZJ1s.facebook

[JustWinBaby]

(09-09-2017, 03:36 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: One of the best ways to protect yourself against identity theft is a credit freeze and thaw:

Yep...I've had that for years since I got victimized by identity theft.

But of course, Equifax was the one service that screwed me (probably in violation of state law) as far as the free lock/unlock thing.

It costs, on average, $30 to freeze your credit ($10 each major service....there's actually a fourth I forget).  $10 for unlocking or temporarily unlocking seems like stealing, to me.


And WTF with people acting like your information would be safer with the govt or these services shouldn't exist?!?

[*michaelsean*]

The execs who sold shares need to go to prison, and Equifax needs to go away.

[JustWinBaby]

(09-11-2017, 09:06 AM)michaelsean Wrote: The execs who sold shares need to go to prison, and Equifax needs to go away.

I can appreciate the anger.....but the reality is much much more complicated.

Is only one of two reporting agencies better?   And how far gone are we if we even need to ask that question?

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

Equifax had a big data breach from a hack in March and told nobody about it. The same people who did that ended up doing the second hack that got so much personal data out there.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/equifax-is-said-to-suffer-a-hack-earlier-than-the-date-disclosed/ar-AAs9Clf?OCID=ansmsnnews11

[oncemoreuntothejimbreech]

(09-16-2017, 04:24 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: I can appreciate the anger.....but the reality is much much more complicated.

Is only one of two reporting agencies better?   And how far gone are we if we even need to ask that question?

Maybe we should bring back Arthur Anderson? Is a Big Three better than a Big Five? And how far gone are we if we even need to ask that question?

[*michaelsean*]

(09-16-2017, 04:24 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: I can appreciate the anger.....but the reality is much much more complicated.

Is only one of two reporting agencies better?   And how far gone are we if we even need to ask that question?

I just say they need to go because they have shown they can't protect our info.  

[Au165]

(09-19-2017, 01:09 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I just say they need to go because they have shown they can't protect our info.  

They aren't the first and won't be the last. Almost nothing on the internet is actually secure if there are people that want to get to it.

[JustWinBaby]

(09-19-2017, 01:09 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I just say they need to go because they have shown they can't protect our info.  

Everyone is getting hacked, from big corporations to big govt to the DNC.  Just accept in the digital age your privacy and information have limits, and all you can do is what you can responsibly do to protect yourself.

If Equifax was negligent in their safeguards, then a massive lawsuit should put them out of business.  It's different than Kohl's because you can choose to not shop there, or not open credit there.