Looks like Equifax was breached

[imoldernu]

Possible good news... This could bring to light the CFPB proposed action to remove binding arbitration from the law.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/09/08/what-to-know-before-you-check-equifaxs-data-breach-website/?nid&utm_term=.b658c138e2bb

IMHO the most egregious evil law ever promulgated by big business.

This language is commonly known in the industry as an “arbitration clause.” In theory, arbitration clauses are meant to streamline the amount of work that's dumped onto the court system. But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concluded in the summer that arbitration clauses do more harm to consumers than good — and the agency put in place a rule to ban them.

“In practice, companies use these clauses to bar groups of consumers from joining together to seek justice by vindicating their legal right,” Richard Cordray, the CFPB’s director, told reporters in July, according to my colleague Jonnelle Marte.

 

[Rustic23]

Site request last name and I think last 6 of SS. How do they know I looked. That is the same information they lost!

 

[Texas Proud]

Possible good news... This could bring to light the CFPB proposed action to remove binding arbitration from the law.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ta-breach-website/?nid&utm_term=.b658c138e2bb

IMHO the most egregious evil law ever promulgated by big business.

That is if that board is in existence in the future... some people are wanting to shut it down... IIRC, there is also a lawsuit saying that it is illegal as to how it was set up...

 

[growing_older]

I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Executives are often encouraged to put a trading (10b5-1) plan in place to dispose of their stock and it could be that the transactions occurred automatically because the stock hit a preset price.

Equifax has announced that these sales were NOT part of a plan already in place by any of the three executives involved.

 

[FIREd]

Equifax has announced that these sales were NOT part of a plan already in place by any of the three executives involved.

Then I'd hate to be in these executives' shoes...

 

[GrayHare]

Site request last name and I think last 6 of SS. How do they know I looked. That is the same information they lost!

The IP address of the device you used to look routes to your home state, heck, to your home computer, rather than one in Russia, China, etc.

 

[samclem]

Also, is there a good way we could drive our state to make the credit freeze and thaw free instead of letting them charge a fee? Is the lobby just too strong in most states?

+1. I'm subject to being victimized by the negligence of these three credit reporting firms and the other companies that use their services. There is a way I can reduce this vulnerability (credit freeze), but (in my state) they are allowed to charge for this. Heck, they should pay >me< if I'm willing to manually freeze and unfreeze my credit info--and they probably would, if they (and merchants, etc) were made to suffer the real cost of their negligence.

The stuff that is being stolen is valuable and vulnerable because these these companies collect it and aggregate it. It does little good for me to diligently shred my paper statements etc if these guys are going to leave the same data vulnerable by the terabyte.

 

[travelover]

......... Execs selling shares are required to make filings with the Feds. That's how the public found out. They did not hide this. My guess is it is just dumb bad luck. EFX has been trading at multi year highs. It was probably a good time to sell a few shares. .............FN

You are joking, right? Half the population of the US affected and you think this just zipped over their naive little heads?

 

[Sunset]

Site request last name and I think last 6 of SS. How do they know I looked. That is the same information they lost!

+1
Yeah, could be the hackers checking to see if Equifax has caught on to the extent of the hack.

 

[Sunset]

The IP address of the device you used to look routes to your home state, heck, to your home computer, rather than one in Russia, China, etc.

They will need a court order to get that info.
Assuming someone didn't use VPN from a server in Russia, or Greece.

 

[flintnational]

You are joking, right? Half the population of the US affected and you think this just zipped over their naive little heads?

They sold $2M total, averaging several hundred thousand each. Not sure I would take on the Feds and public wrath to dispose of a small percent of my holdings. Two kept over 90% of their EFX holdings. If it is insider trading, they don't understand the process. The stock dropped 14%. By selling, they prevented total stock losses of $280k, averaging $93K each. I doubt Sr. Execs risk their job and prison time for $93K.

And I did say, "Rage on".

FN

 

[travelover]

They sold $2M total, averaging several hundred thousand each. Not sure I would take on the Feds and public wrath to dispose of a small percent of my holdings. Two kept over 90% of their EFX holdings. If it is insider trading, they don't understand the process. The stock dropped 14%. By selling, they prevented total stock losses of $280k, averaging $93K each. I doubt Sr. Execs risk their job and prison time for $93K.

And I did say, "Rage on".

FN

This reminds me of the classic defense, "I only stole a little, I could have stolen much more".

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I checked 2 times, I got 2 different answers. I have no idea If I was hacked or not.

 

[Rianne]

Free monitoring is a joke, don't fall for it.

 

[GrayHare]

They will need a court order to get that info.
Assuming someone didn't use VPN from a server in Russia, or Greece.

Unless you're behind a VPN, your IP address is revealed to each site you visit. There are even IP address echo sites that display your address back to you. One is at http://checkip.dyndns.org/

 

[audreyh1]

I checked 2 times, I got 2 different answers. I have no idea If I was hacked or not.

Yes, it's essentially useless. See Krebs article for more details - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/equifax-breach-response-turns-dumpster-fire/

 

[audreyh1]

Free monitoring is a joke, don't fall for it.

Agreed.

 

[flintnational]

This reminds me of the classic defense, "I only stole a little, I could have stolen much more".

We will find out if any of these three were engaged in insider trading. Last time I looked, two congressional committees, the CFPB and several State AGs are set to investigate. Stay tuned.

FN

 

[growing_older]

Free monitoring is a joke, don't fall for it.

Free monitoring ISN'T a joke. It's a profit center.

What's being offered is free enrollment in their monitoring service. No charge for the first year, then MONTHLY charge (over $25/month) if you fail to cancel before the 13th month. The monitoring itself may be a joke, but the tricky "free" offer is a money grab.

 

[Corporateburnout]

I read that Equifax will notify affected people via mail. I wonder how long it's going to take to notify 143 million people?

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Free monitoring ISN'T a joke. It's a profit center.

What's being offered is free enrollment in their monitoring service. No charge for the first year, then MONTHLY charge (over $25/month) if you fail to cancel before the 13th month. The monitoring itself may be a joke, but the tricky "free" offer is a money grab.

Wow, you get beat up 2 times, first your info is pout there to get abused, then you get abused for the monitoring.

Hey any nice vicious shark attorneys out there? I must admit I make a beautiful witness on the stand. The juries loved me. One DA said "stop waving your arms all over the place when you talk, your distracting them". I told him "are you kidding me? Wake up they are eating out of the palm of my hand, they love me." End of trial: GUILTY.

 

[athena53]

Unless you're behind a VPN, your IP address is revealed to each site you visit. There are even IP address echo sites that display your address back to you. One is at http://checkip.dyndns.org/

Yep- I've gotten kicked out of e-Rewards surveys while logging on from outside the US with the message that they weren't looking for answers from my location. I even got a different selection of Netflix (and couldn't get some of my favorites) while logging on in Central America. No court order needed.

 

[cathy63]

Yep- I've gotten kicked out of e-Rewards surveys while logging on from outside the US with the message that they weren't looking for answers from my location. I even got a different selection of Netflix (and couldn't get some of my favorites) while logging on in Central America. No court order needed.

Sure, there are lots of sites that change your experience based on where you are. When we were in Europe last month, DH was complaining that he kept getting google.dk or google.no instead of google.com. I also found out that you cannot check into a Southwest flight if you're in Sweden. I had to download the Opera VPN app for my iPad and set it to a US location before I could complete the check-in.

 

[samclem]

It is time for some real penalties that hurt for companies that fail to secure data properly. Half the penalty should go to those whose data was compromised, half should go to increased enforcement (incl rewards programs) to track down the hackers/leakers/thieves).

Yes, the individuals doing the stealing are ultimately responsible. But when these companies start having to pay real fines (or try to get in$urance to cover the fine$/monetary damage$), then they'll get serious about protecting data.

 

[Fermion]

I have already applied to a law firm to be a part of a class action suit but have not heard anything back yet. They probably want plaintiffs that have in the last month or so been subject to identity theft.