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from the Quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes? dept.
We had three Soylentils send in notice of a major breach at Equifax. The company has a web site specifically for this breach: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/.
Equifax Data Breach Could Affect 143 Million Americans
Equifax, one of the big three US consumer credit reporting agencies, says that criminals exploited a web application vulnerability to gain access to "certain files":
Equifax Inc. today announced a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting approximately 143 million U.S. consumers. Criminals exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files. Based on the company's investigation, the unauthorized access occurred from mid-May through July 2017. The company has found no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax's core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases.
The information accessed primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver's license numbers. In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed. As part of its investigation of this application vulnerability, Equifax also identified unauthorized access to limited personal information for certain UK and Canadian residents. Equifax will work with UK and Canadian regulators to determine appropriate next steps. The company has found no evidence that personal information of consumers in any other country has been impacted.
Is there a silver lining to this event?
Also at NYT, Ars Technica, and CNN.
Huge Cyber Theft from Equifax!
"Cyber security expert Morgan Wright weighs in on the Equifax Inc hack, which may have exposed the personal details of potentially more than 143 million people." http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/07/equifax-143m-us-consumers-affected-by-criminal-cyber-security-breach.html
Equifax Hacked - Data Breach of *Basically Everyone's* PII
According to ARS, Consumerist, and others:
Equifax announced today that it discovered “unauthorized access” to their systems — i.e. a data breach — on July 29. 143 million records, basically *everyone* in their database.
That query must have taken a long time to run.
Whoever got into their systems had access from mid-May through the end of July, so about two-and-a-half months.
Equifax says it has “no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases,” but plenty of Equifax systems were accessed, and data purloined. The company adds the standard adage about reporting the incident to law enforcement and working with both independent forensic investigators as well as the relevant authorities to sort out who’s responsible.
What was stolen?
This one is bad. The illicitly accessed data includes:
- Names
- Dates of birth
- Addresses
- Social Security numbers
- Driver’s license numbers
That is, of course, basically the identity theft jackpot. Every account that needs verification that you’re you asks for that exact set of data, so now anyone can be you.
So, all of your PII are belongs to us.
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday September 08 2017, @02:18AM (25 children)
Doncha just love capitalism! The market has a solution to even a total disaster like this!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 08 2017, @02:53AM (24 children)
Yes, I do. I've had a solution to this for decades: don't use credit. Do a quick, free credit check a couple times a year to make sure you still don't have any and everything is shiny.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @03:51AM (20 children)
Hey dumbfuck! You, via the already listed identifying info, are already in these databases, even if you have never taken out credit, per se. Now, somebody else can take out credit for you. Looks like you still lost the game...albeit with insufferable smugness still intact.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 08 2017, @10:20AM (3 children)
Oi, dipshit, did you miss the part where I never use credit? That means A) ruined credit means nothing to me and B) I can check a couple times a year and get anything someone did in my name easily removed.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by edIII on Friday September 08 2017, @05:19PM (2 children)
Yep. I probably have about 10-15 parasites on my credit right now, just as I did 20 years ago when I first looked into it.
Checked the website, I "may have been affected", and I just laughed.
1) I don't use credit
2) If a company demands a credit report before doing business with me, I remind them that they will pay for it, and I will suffer zero damages from anything on it. If they want $500 extra dollars I just walk out the fucking door.
3) Cash is king. When you pay something in full, you can talk to the owner or supervisor and they WILL take away the penalties. They hate watching that much money leave.
4) I have always lied. Whatever addresses the criminals think they have are inaccurate. To top it off, the parasites and general ineptitude of the credit reporting agencies, have added addresses to my credit report that I have nothing to do with. A feature, not a bug :)
Unlike you, I don't remove shit anymore. It's like added shielding for days like this :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cykros on Friday September 08 2017, @11:00PM (1 child)
Not using credit is usually easier said than done. Sure, you might avoid ever having a mortgage by staying in the rental cycle, but then, most landlords will do a credit check and refuse to rent to you if your credit is trashed. Living out of a trailer may be a solution, though isn't without its pitfalls. Unless you're born into money or otherwise have a well-to-do benefactor to help you out while you build up enough of your own (ie, someone who gives you informal credit outside of the banking system), you're stuck either using credit, or at least generally spending a lot more money in the long run than would be necessary if you had (ie, renting for 15 years to save up enough to buy a cheap house outright rather than relying on a mortgage).
Basically, while of course there are ways that a minority of people can slip through the cracks and do things like live off-lease at someone else's rental or with someone who trusts them to pay rent, those cracks simply aren't big enough for the majority of the population to fit through at the same time.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 08 2017, @11:26PM
When I was a kid, it was recognized that a mortgage was probably an unavoidable debt. It was pretty common for people to finance a home, and a car. There really isn't anything else that people should be financing. Today, people purchase lunch on credit, balancing a wallet full of credit cards that are all overdrawn. Somewhere, we've lost our clues.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Justin Case on Friday September 08 2017, @01:18PM (15 children)
Why should I care in the slightest if Criminal A tricks stupid careless sloppy Bank B into giving money to A because A claims to be me?
I'm not involved in this transaction in any way. I am not a "victim" of "identity theft". My identity wasn't stolen; I still have it.
Now I suppose clueless Bank B might ask me to pay back the loan someday. My response: What loan? Show me the contract bearing my signature. Oh you don't have one? Fuck off.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @02:59PM (11 children)
Because Bank B will file on your credit, causing your legitimate creditors to review the conditions they provide you, your insurance providers to raise your rates, and credit to be denied to you should you suddenly need it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @04:36PM (4 children)
Actually, those are among the least of his worries. What is truly terrifying is if some twizzledick owes back taxes on your stolen identity. The IRS typically won't give a fuck if you plead that this was someone else that fraudulently ran up a tax bill in your name. And need I point out that, with the IRS, they don't need to prove you are guilty, you need to prove you are innocent? Also, bad credit rating could affect access to medical care. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @05:19PM (3 children)
Is that actually true? Yes, any kind of identity theft will be a PITA, and possibly legally expensive, for the victim to sort out. Given adequate defense, do legitimate tax court cases usually end unfairly?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @07:07PM (2 children)
From the section titled "Spread and impact" (at the bottom of the wiki page) [wikipedia.org]:
Also, Identity Theft Victims Are Waiting Months for Their Tax Refunds, TIGTA Says [accountingweb.com] Yep, unfortunately it's true.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @07:40PM (1 child)
Your quote doesn't match the question.
The question was whether process in the tax court could be described as fair. That it may take longer to claim a tax refund in the case of identity theft is obvious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @09:50PM
????? Michelle Brown found herself in the position of having to clear her name and prove that she was not a convicted felon. In what rational universe could that possibly be construed as fair?!? Meanwhile, here in the real world, defendants are (supposed to be) considered innocent until proven guilty.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday September 08 2017, @05:25PM (4 children)
Ohhhh, I hope they fucking do. Please, please, please let this happen to me. Banks have what lawyers masturbate to at night; Deep Pockets.
If Bank B fucked up that big, I can get Lawyer C to put the big D into Bank B. Afterwards, I get a tidy sum after splitting it with the lawyer.
In a court of law, they need to prove it was me.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @07:45PM (3 children)
Months and $$$ later, yeah, you may receive justice. Depends if you can afford to front the $$$ and spend months fighting. Seems unlikely to me that a lawyer would take such a case purely on contingency.
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Friday September 08 2017, @09:23PM (2 children)
Then you have no imagination, and are largely ignorant of the processes involved.
Sue them in small claims court. The top limit is $5k, but it will only cost you $75 max to initiate the lawsuit. By law, Equifax must appear and send an executive down with the lawyer. This is why when a large corporation fucks up they will settle on the $5k, if they are smart. That's much less than the cost of sending a lawyer and executive to a small claims court in California. If they don't appear it's also very likely I receive a default judgement against them, as my arguments are not about pain and suffering using facts they themselves put out in public.
If/When I win the case, it sets precedence. Then I speak with the lawyer and inform him that the $5k will be used to put up a how-to website describing how everyone else can sue them in small claims court too. Death by 10,000 cuts to follow. Unless I get $100k, and for that, I would be willing to agree to no class actions or websites created. Either way, I fucked them out of thousands just by filing the damn suit. Even funnier is just to sue for the costs of the suit plus $1 for principles. I know the plane costs and paying the lawyer and executive far exceed whatever I could get, so they get fucked.
Often companies like to not pay. Lawyers have told my family, "Good luck collecting". Bwahahahahhahahahhha!! You show up with a sheriff at their headquarters and start taking chairs, desks, computers, etc. It's all legal, and I can do it until the sale of their shit can get rid of my judgment. I've been there looking at the lawyers face and his response was, "I will have the check by tomorrow".
Yes, there are lawyers that would eat that up on contingency in a second. Remember, if he wins, there are 143 million (minus 1) other prospects for doing the exact same thing. Plus the possibilities of class actions. I've never been in an agreement with Equifax, so they don't get arbitration.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @11:05AM
It only sets a precedent if the case is published.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @10:36PM
Idea: ask the court to grant an injunction against Equifax keeping records about the plaintiff. Unintended consequences may ensue. :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @08:34PM
About insurance:
http://www.equifax.com/business/insight-score-insurance [equifax.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Friday September 08 2017, @05:31PM (2 children)
Yes, Stand your ground. I did it with a wireless carrier that claimed I racked up thousands of dollars in charges on an account opened in my name with my social. Of course... this was Sprint. Who I have never done business with in my life. I never signed any contract, and Sprint is notorious for shitty security and events exactly like this.
They tried suing me and I laughed my fucking ass off and watched them lose theirs. Reasonable doubt was provided nicely by the thousands of dollars I had being paying a different wireless carrier under contract for several years before the account was opened at Sprint. None of the numbers called belonged to anyone I knew. Anybody with a brain could see it was fraud, which excluded Sprint.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @08:38PM
The standard, I think, is a preponderance of evidence. Had they managed to get criminal charges filed against you, the standard would be reasonable doubt.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday September 09 2017, @03:17AM
I hope you got a nice settlement for all that pain and aggravation they brought upon you.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @08:32PM (2 children)
> don't use credit
Yes, the solution is to go off the grid. And pity the fools who have postpaid gas, water, electricity, telephone, cable/satellite TV, or Internet.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 08 2017, @08:57PM (1 child)
Those aren't credit. Those are bills. The former is someone advancing you money and hoping you pay it back, the latter is simply charging you either before or after services have been rendered. In the case of my Internet and insurance bills, it's before because they know exactly what the charge will be for a month. In the cases of gas/water/electricity they have no idea how much to charge until I've used the service in question for a month, so they're forced to charge afterwards.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @10:16AM
You may never have asked someone to loan you money, but utility companies do credit inquiries:
(source [howstuffworks.com])
One definition of credit, which applies to utility bills, is [dictionary.com] "confidence in a purchaser's ability and intention to pay, displayed by entrusting the buyer with goods or services without immediate payment." Semantics aside, Experian says [soylentnews.org] that it receives reports from those companies--which it uses in a score that it sells to insurance companies. Were you able to avoid giving your personal information to providers of "gas, water, electricity, telephone, cable/satellite TV, or Internet" when signing up for those services? I'm guessing the answer is no, meaning CRAs have your personal information. If you somehow do without utilities or don't have them in your name, the CRAs still have your informatoin. You provided it when you requested those free credit checks.
Even if you never apply for a loan, CRAs can affect you. In some states, employers are allowed to request records from CRAs as part of a background check. The whole point of the CRA is to buy and sell information about you. If they're careless with it, there could be harm to you even if you never apply for what you define as credit.