Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What's a Practical Response To the Equifax Breach?
In response to the massive Equifax cybersecurity incident impacting approximately 143 million U.S. consumer -- making it possibly the worst leak of personal info ever -- Slashdot reader AdamStarks asks: What steps can the average Joe take to protect their identity? Accepting Equifax's help forfeits your right to sue; it's the same with applying for protection at TransUnion (not sure about Experian). Extra services at those companies also cost money, but that's putting even more of your data in their hands, and it's not clear whether the protection/help they provide is worth it (leaving aside not wanting to reward bad behavior).
Class-action will only transfer additional costs on to the consumers.
I vote to shut it down, have the FTC or somebody step in, and force a direct payout to the consumers, bypassing all the fucking lawyers.
I agree that it should have been free but, a stable adult rarely needs to do anything related to credit checks. Even beyond that, I am 100% willing to give up convenience for palpable online security. I've never had my identity stolen, never had a virus on my computer, never had a website password breach compromise another account, etc. And the reason for that is that I'm cautious and willing to inconvenience myself to avoid a threat. As soon as I read about credit freezes (on this website!) I decided that the threat was much, much larger than any inconvenience I would invoke by freezing my credit. The Experian breach is a Big Deal and the adults in the room are inoculating themselves against it regardless of the hassle.
Wait, there has to be a PIN recovery system. And guess who would now have all the data needed to reset the PIN.