Looks like Equifax was breached

SecondCor521 said:
.....
Most people would say that it's pretty hard to navigate the modern USA without things like mortgages, credit cards, various loans, and renting apartments, but in theory, at least, you have the option of not using any of those and not having a credit file.
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You will have a credit file, with a low score, since there will be no proof you pay your bills.
Resistance is Futile - the EquiSlack Slogan :LOL:
 
SecondCor521 said:
I don't like any of this either, but I'm not sure the above is accurate.

Whenever we do an activity that affects our credit, I have to believe that somewhere deep in the contract those credit card companies and other credit grantors disclose that they will report our information to the credit bureaus and by using that credit we consent to them sharing this information.

Most people would say that it's pretty hard to navigate the modern USA without things like mortgages, credit cards, various loans, and renting apartments, but in theory, at least, you have the option of not using any of those and not having a credit file.
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Yes, probably consented. But most likely somewhere in very teenie tiny fine print.
 
easysurfer said:
Yes, probably consented. But most likely somewhere in very teenie tiny fine print.
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Your point is well taken.
My view is that US business and supporting organizations have gone too far in collecting and warehousing personal data. As these security breaches play out (ho hum, another one revealed today, the SEC), we realize that the caretakers are not performing very well in safeguarding information.

Our entire economy is being undermined. Hearing that I agreed/enabled this on page 101 of the Apple download agreement is kinda lame, IMO. I don't think our approach is very healthy, and might lead to a great deal of social and economic chaos in the near future.
 
Back in the 90s I scratched my head about "information" driving the economy of the future. I now understand that much of this new economy is entities creating insecurities and offering to protect us from these insecurities but without any guarantee or way to measure their success in the protection part.


I've been thinking about crime/police and credit. Why can't people with bad credit acts be recorded and everyone else be assumed clean? We don't all have a police report saying we get fast lane privileges for having a DMV score of 800.
 
I don't like any of this either, but I'm not sure the above is accurate.

Whenever we do an activity that affects our credit, I have to believe that somewhere deep in the contract those credit card companies and other credit grantors disclose that they will report our information to the credit bureaus and by using that credit we consent to them sharing this information.
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That in itself is extortion. You can't do business without it ergo you are forced to acquiesce. As long as the gun is pressed up against your head it's voluntary
 
Most states require you to have car insurance if you drive. Very few states have rural bus routes to all locations. Quite a few car insurance companies will run your credit report.

Essentially by law you are being forced to giving up your information to the credit reporting agencies.
 
If enough consumers (interesting choice of words to describe us, no?) cared enough about the security of our data, we would start insisting on better data security as part of our transactions. This could result in economic pressure on the credit providers or credit bureaus to change their behavior, or perhaps a law with some teeth might be passed like the one that makes creditor harassment easier to sue to stop (FCRA I think) and which has probably reduced the incidence of that bad behavior.

Currently, more of us care more about getting an instant credit decision to get 10% off all our purchases today. More of us care about easy mortgage and credit card applications.

There are benefits both ways. In my experience it takes a while to realize that security is a nice and good feature to have in an economic ecosystem or product, and so it tends to be thought of later. The same thing happened in cars. We started getting trip computers and navigation systems and WiFi hot spots, which was great. And then someone figured out that they could hack into the car and tap the brakes and do other stuff without the driver's permission.

And to the last two posters, there is no law forcing you to enter into those contracts, no law forcing you where to live (quite the opposite - Fair Housing Act), no law forcing you to drive, etc. I agree that it would be hard to lead a typical American life without credit, but the reason that is so is that we have collectively agreed that the benefits of a credit system is worth the tradeoffs in most cases. To repeat my opening line, if we don't like the tradeoffs and we stop making them, the credit grantors and credit bureaus will be forced to listen. If we can't stop making the tradeoffs, then I would suggest slavery is a better word than extortion.
 
Yeah but you know it was the banks who really wanted to increase the volume of credit applications processing, not consumers.
 
The story isn't ending yet. It now appears that Equifax bought a company that does identity theft protection and resolution between the time the breach occurred and before they announced it. Basically using their inside knowledge that this business was about to boom as soon as everyone realized their info had been compromised.


https://investor.equifax.com/news-and-events/news/2017/08-11-2017-005951319
 
growing_older said:
the story isn't ending yet. It now appears that equifax bought a company that does identity theft protection and resolution between the time the breach occurred and before they announced it. Basically using their inside knowledge that this business was about to boom as soon as everyone realized their info had been compromised.
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ycmtsu!
 
growing_older said:
The story isn't ending yet. It now appears that Equifax bought a company that does identity theft protection and resolution between the time the breach occurred and before they announced it. Basically using their inside knowledge that this business was about to boom as soon as everyone realized their info had been compromised.


https://investor.equifax.com/news-and-events/news/2017/08-11-2017-005951319
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It takes months to acquire a company. IMO, this was likely already in the pipeline.

FN
 
Equifax is a very big company and it wouldn't be surprising that they have lots of possible acquisitions in the pipeline all the time. It doesn't mean there isn't something curious about the decision to move ahead with this particular acquisition when Equifax knew about the breach that had not yet been announced. At the very least, I wonder if the seller knew?
 
They might not have bought the ID protection company due to their hack but likely bought it on the basis of knowing their own security structure made it a not "if" but "when " they would be hacked situation.

Shotgun in the closet. Prepared for every contingency
 
Equifax's CEO just um.. abruptly "retired." :(

Richard Smith, CEO and chairman of Equifax, abruptly retired Tuesday following a data breach at the credit-reporting service that affected the personal information of 143 million people, according to the company's board.
Equifax shares fell 2 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday. They have fallen 26 percent in September after the company revealed the breach.
The announcement was made by Mark Feidler, a current board member, will serve as Non-Executive Chairman. Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., president of company's Asia Pacific region, has been appointed as interim CEO.
Smith, who was 57 as of the company's proxy statement in March, became CEO and chairman in 2005 after spending 22 years at General Electric in senior roles in various divisions. He is to appear at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee next month, where he is currently the only person scheduled to testify.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/26/equ...data-breach-affecting-143-million-people.html
 
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I was finally able to freeze my credit at Experian & Equifax but still haven't been able to freeze my credit at Transunion. Transunion keeps giving me a message that they are experiencing high volume and to try later. It was easy and pretty fast on Experian & Equifax. Do you have to freeze your credit at all credit reporting agencies?
 
splitwdw said:
I was finally able to freeze my credit at Experian & Equifax but still haven't been able to freeze my credit at Transunion. Transunion keeps giving me a message that they are experiencing high volume and to try later. It was easy and pretty fast on Experian & Equifax. Do you have to freeze your credit at all credit reporting agencies?
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i've always had trouble with transunion performing and unfreezing my account with them. They seem to be a little backward, IMO.
 
splitwdw said:
I was finally able to freeze my credit at Experian & Equifax but still haven't been able to freeze my credit at Transunion. Transunion keeps giving me a message that they are experiencing high volume and to try later. It was easy and pretty fast on Experian & Equifax. Do you have to freeze your credit at all credit reporting agencies?
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Yes, it's wise to freeze at all. I froze mine a couple of years ago, and apart from a couple of very temporary unfreezings for new credit cards they have all been fine.

After this latest fiasco I also froze my records at the other two (smaller) agencies. You just can't be too careful IMHO.
 
I froze all three accounts and was surprised to see that Credit Karma still works.
 
Thanks, Timo2 & braumeister. I'll try later tonight.
braumeister, I must not have read this thread very thoroughly. I did not know there were 2 more smaller credit agencies. Off to google them.
 
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