Experian, Ford, and Identity Theft

corebreech writes "The mighty New York Times (I think they might want you to register) is reporting that hackers posing as Ford employees have managed to pilfer some 13,000 credit reports (Quality is Job 1.) Supposedly the info isn't restricted to merely credit card numbers, but rather includes such delectable delights as address, SSN, bank account info and creditworthiness. Glad I take the subway." The original story was from the Boston Globe.

Comments

He got it wrong

[tshoppa]

From the NYT:

It just shows that today, even big companies can be victimized

No, it shows that every once in a while that the big companies will publicize that their security has been compromised. Of course, we all know that for every such case that makes the New York Times, there are thousands where they don't. And for every one of those, there are ten where the news of the security breach never leaves the company. And for every one of those there are probably a hundred where nobody at the company knows that they have gaping security holes.

They didn't just crack Ford owners

[awharnly]

Read the article again. They didn't just steal the personal financial information of Ford owners.

Only 400 of the 13,000 victims were customers of Ford Credit, he said.

They just pretended to be Ford so that they could access the credit reports of thousands of people. Subway-riders included.

The bad news though,

[w.p.richardson]

If you can't document that you have been a victim of identity theft (or a similar type of crime), then you have to shell out about $10 per report. Thats $30 per year, simply to make sure someone isn't screwing you over. This seems ridiculous to me.

These credit bureaus have too much centralized data on citizens. They are a one stop shop for crooks, be they crackers or whatever.