Giant Equifax data breach- 143 million people could be affected

Well, as if anyone needs anything else to be concerned about, one of the largest personal information data miners/credit resources has been hacked.
From CNN-
Equifax says a giant cybersecurity breach compromised the personal information of as many as 143 million Americans — almost half the country.
Cyber criminals have accessed sensitive information -- including names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and the numbers of some driver's licenses.
Additionally, Equifax said that credit card numbers for about 209,000 U.S. customers were exposed, as was "personal identifying information" on roughly 182,000 U.S. customers involved in credit report disputes. Residents in the U.K. and Canada were also impacted.
The breach occurred between mid-May and July, Equifax said. The company said it discovered the hack on July 29.
The data breach is one of the worst ever, by its reach and by the kind of information exposed to the public.

The article is here- http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/technology/business/equifax-data-breach/index.html



OM

Time it took to inform the public: 40 days
Time it took for executives to sell $1.8 million in stock: 3 days

bogthebasher said:

Time it took to inform the public: 40 days
Time it took for executives to sell $1.8 million in stock: 3 days

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Three Equifax executives insulated themselves from that downturn by selling shares worth a combined $1.8 million just a few days after the company discovered it had been hacked, according to documents filed with securities regulators.
The sales, executed on August 1 and August 2, were made by: John Gamble, Equifax's chief financial officer; Rodolfo Ploder, Equifax's president of workforce solutions; and Joseph Loughran, Equifax's president of U.S. information solutions. Bloomberg News first reported the divestitures.

Glad that corporate integrity remains at the forefront.

I'm sure it was just a coincidence...

129654 said:

Three Equifax executives insulated themselves from that downturn by selling shares worth a combined $1.8 million just a few days after the company discovered it had been hacked, according to documents filed with securities regulators.
The sales, executed on August 1 and August 2, were made by: John Gamble, Equifax's chief financial officer; Rodolfo Ploder, Equifax's president of workforce solutions; and Joseph Loughran, Equifax's president of U.S. information solutions. Bloomberg News first reported the divestitures.

Glad that corporate integrity remains at the forefront.

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Don't worry, it's only your retirement portfolio that's dependent on the actions of Wall Street.........

As I watch this unfold, it seems that there is the offer of a "free" year of credit watch offered by Equifax. It seems that by signing up for this you exempt yourself from inclusion in a/the class action suit........not that I'm a big fan of a CALS. This does seem to suggest that the announcement delay has a bit of "ducks in a row" stink to it

Anybody ever try a credit monitoring program?
Does it work?
Are you happy with it?
OM

My local news provided a website that you can use to check if you're vulnerable. It's an https secure site and you have to enter the last 6 of your SSN.

https://equifaxsecurity2017.com

Click on the potential impact link.

20774 said:

My local news provided a website that you can use to check if you're vulnerable. It's an https secure site and you have to enter the last 6 of your SSN.

https://equifaxsecurity2017.com

Click on the potential impact link.

Click to expand...

Saw that.....I'm usually reluctant to feed the dog that (may have) bit me. Seems like the info has been released and trust has been diminished.
Sorta like the Gillette Razor ad I just saw on how they were putting money back in the pockets of Americans by reducing prices.......Read- Damn internet and Harry's, The Dollar Shave Club and the like.
OM

Yeah, I didn't think I had done business with them and I suppose I could wait until/if I get a letter in the mail. But I don't think there's much harm...knock wood!

20774 said:

Yeah, I didn't think I had done business with them and I suppose I could wait until/if I get a letter in the mail. But I don't think there's much harm...knock wood!

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I don't think many have done business with them- on a direct basis Kurt. They are a financial data mining service that collects financial records through information collected via "what we do with your information" fine print stuffers from your credit card/bank/DMV and related sources. This information then becomes the (one of) sources used by a financial institution when applying for credit. The FI pays a fee to a company such as this to access the "centralized" records mined from your credit history. Even the insurance companies use this information in determining a persons "insurability" and the cost of premiums charged.
I've mentioned before, George Orwell was an optimist
Gary

Omega Man said:

Anybody ever try a credit monitoring program?
Does it work?
Are you happy with it?
OM

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Gary, et al - As part of the vast Federal workforce my information including SSAN, DOB, etc. was released by a data breach at the US Office of Personnel Management. I think this happened about three years ago. The USOPM contracted with "MyIDCare" to keep an eye on credit information for the 22,000,000 victims of this data breach. I signed up for the free service, but took no other action.

Fast-forward three years, and my wake-up call came not from the credit-monitoring program, but from the arrival of a brand-new Verizon Apple iPhone 7 (I did not order) which was slyly sent not to my home address, but to a FedEx Office location. 24 hours later the credit monitoring program sent me an email telling me that Verizon had made a credit inquiry, and that I had a new account there. My attempts to speak with a person at "MyIDCare" resulted in advice that wait-time to speak to an "agent" was an hour and forty-five minutes. I left a message and received a VM two days later. Nice, eh?

I took action immediately after the Verizon inquiry. I froze my accounts at all three credit bureaus which cost me a total of $15. This keeps anyone from opening an account using my ID information, as I understand it.

I was able to independently contact Verizon's Fraud operation, and they were very helpful. I hope the person who caused this problem for me will be caught, but I'm not optimistic due to the plethora of cases. That said, one of my former colleagues is head of Verizon's operation so maybe it will happen.

Enough out of me...

ExGMan said:

Gary, et al - As part of the vast Federal workforce my information including SSAN, DOB, etc. was released by a data breach at the US Office of Personnel Management. I think this happened about three years ago. The USOPM contracted with "MyIDCare" to keep an eye on credit information for the 22,000,000 victims of this data breach. I signed up for the free service, but took no other action.

Fast-forward three years, and my wake-up call came not from the credit-monitoring program, but from the arrival of a brand-new Verizon Apple iPhone 7 (I did not order) which was slyly sent not to my home address, but to a FedEx Office location. 24 hours later the credit monitoring program sent me an email telling me that Verizon had made a credit inquiry, and that I had a new account there. My attempts to speak with a person at "MyIDCare" resulted in advice that wait-time to speak to an "agent" was an hour and forty-five minutes. I left a message and received a VM two days later. Nice, eh?

I took action immediately after the Verizon inquiry. I froze my accounts at all three credit bureaus which cost me a total of $15. This keeps anyone from opening an account using my ID information, as I understand it.

I was able to independently contact Verizon's Fraud operation, and they were very helpful. I hope the person who caused this problem for me will be caught, but I'm not optimistic due to the plethora of cases. That said, one of my former colleagues is head of Verizon's operation so maybe it will happen.

Enough out of me...

Click to expand...

Thanks John, good stuff
A hint of what works and what may not work.....personal experiences are always helpful.
It's also good for the Members to realize that it's the algorithm that detects the fraud and hopefully gets a committed employee to notice and start the protection/inquiry.
Gary

FWIW, in reading about this on some of the financial websites it is looking like the safest bet is to NOT take the free monitoring offered through Equifax, but to sign up with a paid credit monitoring service. Following that, one should freeze their credit on all three of the major credit reporting services.

What a fine mess... and there is no excuse for this. Secure and isolated systems can be built, but businesses are reluctant to foot the bill for appropriate security constructs and methodologies. Equifax deserves every lawsuit that is filed against them over this.

Best,
DG

ExGMan said:

Gary, et al - As part of the vast Federal workforce my information including SSAN, DOB, etc. was released by a data breach at the US Office of Personnel Management. I think this happened about three years ago. The USOPM contracted with "MyIDCare" to keep an eye on credit information for the 22,000,000 victims of this data breach. I signed up for the free service, but took no other action.

Fast-forward three years, and my wake-up call came not from the credit-monitoring program, but from the arrival of a brand-new Verizon Apple iPhone 7 (I did not order) which was slyly sent not to my home address, but to a FedEx Office location. 24 hours later the credit monitoring program sent me an email telling me that Verizon had made a credit inquiry, and that I had a new account there. My attempts to speak with a person at "MyIDCare" resulted in advice that wait-time to speak to an "agent" was an hour and forty-five minutes. I left a message and received a VM two days later. Nice, eh?

I took action immediately after the Verizon inquiry. I froze my accounts at all three credit bureaus which cost me a total of $15. This keeps anyone from opening an account using my ID information, as I understand it.

I was able to independently contact Verizon's Fraud operation, and they were very helpful. I hope the person who caused this problem for me will be caught, but I'm not optimistic due to the plethora of cases. That said, one of my former colleagues is head of Verizon's operation so maybe it will happen.

Enough out of me...

Click to expand...

Wells Fargo created that account for you.

Omega Man said:

Saw that.....I'm usually reluctant to feed the dog that (may have) bit me. Seems like the info has been released and trust has been diminished.
Sorta like the Gillette Razor ad I just saw on how they were putting money back in the pockets of Americans by reducing prices.......Read- Damn internet and Harry's, The Dollar Shave Club and the like.
OM

Click to expand...

"Saw that.....I'm usually reluctant to feed the dog that (may have) bit me. Seems like the info has been released and trust has been diminished."

That's my thought as well. Why put out anymore information?....well too them anyway.

I talked to my bank & credit card company. They said that they are aware , and basically no need to worry . The C/C company added an additional security code while we spoke.

I'll call investments tomorrow......Not much else we can do?...

71243 said:

I talked to my bank & credit card company. They said that they are aware , and basically no need to worry . The C/C company added an additional security code while we spoke.

I'll call investments tomorrow......Not much else we can do?...

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There is much more you can, and should, do. Start by contacting all your financial services, including banks, CC cards, investments, pension services, SSA, etc. and set up 2-factor authentication for any accounts you hold. If someone uses your leaked info to get into an account via social engineering you'll get a code popping up on your phone. Freeze your credit at all three of the credit services. Sign up for TransUnion's free monitoring service, NOT Equifax's service; they dropped the ball initially then sat on the breach until their C-level folks could offload their shares, do you really want to trust them for monitoring?

This breach contains the golden eggs of identity theft information on everyone whose info was compromised, and the threat from this breach will carry on for decades. Citizens whose data was compromised will have to deal with the hassles of increased security on everything they do financially for the rest of their lives. There is no excuse for a breach such as this, whether it arises from technical incompetence or lack of employee training/monitoring/oversight and Equifax deserves every lawsuit and judgement against them.

Don't wait until you see the camel's nose in the tent via weird charges showing up on your CC, or new cards or accounts appearing on your free credit reports that you should be requesting and saving now, as a baseline, and every four months in a rotation between the three credit bureaus. Don't wait for that new iPhone shipment or billing notice or the note from the appraisal service on your new mortgage or HELOC loan, be proactive.
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

Best,
DG

20774 said:

My local news provided a website that you can use to check if you're vulnerable. It's an https secure site and you have to enter the last 6 of your SSN.

https://equifaxsecurity2017.com

Click on the potential impact link.

Click to expand...

I did that and happily it informed me that I am not involved in this data breach.

I also have used credit monitoring through Experian, and have used it for several years. The last two times I applied for vehicle loans, I was notified that an application for a loan in my name had been detected. My experience is that credit monitoring is a good service to have.

Harry

Actually, being allowed to collect this information is criminal, and doing it ought to be a felony. And losing it ought to bear absolute liability with no defense. Maybe $100,000 per person might compensate for inconvenience and any loss ought to be paid for double. Then they might not collect it and certainly might protect it. If affected I will enthusiastically join a class action lawsuit. I have no business relationship with these clowns. They compiled my information without my permission.

PGlaves said:

Actually, being allowed to collect this information is criminal, and doing it ought to be a felony. And losing it ought to bear absolute liability with no defense. Maybe $100,000 per person might compensate for inconvenience and any loss ought to be paid for double. Then they might not collect it and certainly might protect it. If affected I will enthusiastically join a class action lawsuit. I have no business relationship with these clowns. They compiled my information without my permission.

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You can also blame the regulators.
By accepting a credit card, loan, mortgage or other credit instruments- a borrower or card holder accepts the terms or cannot participate.
It's unfortunately way too late.
From Discover-

I used the link Kurt provided...Thank you Kurt...and found that I was also not involved.
That said ....can we even trust that? It is after all the same company. I still made many phone calls & will for sure keep an even closer eye on all my statements.

I agree with Paul...IMO it is criminal activity and these execs should be prosecuted along with the company itself.

30-40 days before reporting, then bailing themselves out !...No excuse.