Slashdot Mirror
Equifax Breach Included 10 Million US Driving Licenses (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: 10.9 million U.S. driver's licenses were stolen in the massive breach that Equifax suffered in mid-May, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. In addition, WSJ has revealed that the attackers got a hold of 15.2 million UK customers' records, though only 693,665 among them had enough info in the system for the breach to be a real threat to their privacy. Affected customers provided most of the driver's licenses on file to verify their identities when they disputed their credit-report information through an Equifax web page. That page was one of the entry points the attackers used to gain entry into the credit reporting agency's system.
...having a sub-500 credit score can be a good thing.
Someone needs to get handed a few decades of jail time for this. By somone, I mean someone with Director, or C_O after their name. Better yet a few someones.
First law of people: People are generally stupid.
Even if Equifax is completely disbanded and sold off, those responsible should spend time in jail and be fined into bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the right ones won't. There will be patsies and those who don't know enough or can't afford enough lawyers and time to defend themselves while the ones responsible will just take $$$ parachutes and waltz off.
Our justice system is run by money, not justice. I wish I had a solution to propose.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
You know, it's really starting to bug me that the media, including those that really ought to know better, keeps referring to the victims of the Equifax hack as their "customers". With the exception of those who actually signed up to Equifax's credit checking service of their own volition they, or more accurately the data Equifax has about them, are either victims or the *product*. Equifax's actual customers are the banks, employers, stores, and other companies that buy the data Equifax holds on the victims of the hack, most of whom have no direct business relationship with Equifax beyond an agreement with a third party to have their credit checked that probably didn't even make it clear that it would be Equifax doing the checks.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
I don't think any amount of identity monitoring can make up for this bullshit. Not only did my credit information get leaked, my salary and now my ID. This was bound to happen eventually, we need to really rethink about who gets our information, how long they can keep it, who is authorized to have it and hold them to a universal standard across the board for securing it. At which when a company falls out of compliance, they get 1 warning and after that they are permanently barred from storing this data.
At this point wouldn't it be quicker to list things that were not compromised by Equifax?
Yes there needs to be house cleaning (without parachutes but that will never happen) and yes the FTC needs to open a huge can of woopass on them and yes they should be sued into insolvency but jail time?
Let's put the pitchforks away for a minute and realize it's not *if* a data breach happens it's when and no one is immune.
The bad thing here is, like others, they are pussyfooting around with what/why/when/how and some of it may be to ignorance but a lot is probably damage control. In a sensible system there would be laws in place that any company with PII *must* cooperate 100% to publicly identify what was accessed and how as soon as they know. These things should be learning experiences not exercises in PR/damage control.
The information can be used to file taxes. When one gets those "your taxes have already been filed" letters from the IRS is because someone used your SSN and other information and filed taxes to get a refund and other credits.
That information is also used to get jobs. Illegal aliens use fake credentials to get jobs - and file taxes to get refunds and EIC, CTC, ACTC, AOTC or other credits.
That information is also used for other nefarious reasons.
And if that information is abused, it's up to the victim to correct it - if they can - and cover the costs.
And most of the things that are done last forever. Even debt. Debt collectors are all unethical sacks of shit and they'll bully folks to pay to debt that isn't there's - including folks who have had their identities stolen. So, after having to deal with the identity theft, you will have to deal with assholes who will lie about the law to collect on debt that isn't yours.
Suck it up my fellow peon.
Equifax should be shut down, their C-level executives fired without pay, pensions or golden parachutes and the stockholders have their shares valued worthless - they shouldn't have invested in a company with an unethical business model and deserve the bad karma.
I have been victim of Anthem's (lying cocksuckers) break-in, Equfax' (unethical lying fucks) and another one - I'm tired of getting letters that say my data was part of a data breech.
We must have European regulations and laws regarding our data and privacy. Business is incapable of acting ethically, fairly and honestly.
Store your data behind a "skinny pipe" to the outside world.
Make "skinny" just big enough for "normal" traffic for any given time of day plus a fudge-factor to allow for busy days.
This way if someone wants to steal your data they will have to "sip it slowly" to avoid causing a noticeable slowdown.
It won't stop wholesale data theft but it will reduce the amount of information they can steal in any given period of time.
It also won't stop "selective" data theft..
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
What about Windows Defender? You're already running Microsoft software, a little more won't hurt much more.
Yet they're still in the system, because they got a mortgage.
or rented a house/apartment
or a power bill
or a phone account
or pretty much any service that runs as a "pay in arrears" service. They all run credit checks on their customers.
You go AC! I have faith you're going to honor your statements!
Why are they not subjected to civil seizure? I think we all know.
That is what they do. For a fee. So their customers (Banks etc.) will be really pissed that they are giving out this information to others for free.
It amazes me that the USA allows these companies to exist.
End Equifax now. Company out of business. Assets seized by the State. Managers fined. Executives in the gulag. End Equifax now.
It's a neat idea. Hackers breach Equifax and find wormholes to everyone's residences and steal all drivers licenses and pile them up in a warehouse on a deserted tropical island.
However, they may have stolen the Drivers License numbers.
We'll make great pets