Equifax breach a nightmare that should serve as wake-up call for feds

[turbinetree]

The American public has had several days to allow news to sink in regarding the massive data breach at credit monitoring agency Equifax. Information regarding more than 100 million Americans was stolen, and the company’s primary response, to offer credit monitoring, has been widely derided. Although not the largest data breach, this one is one of the most serious because of the sensitive content purloined.

Since disclosure, the technical security community has chastised the company for its poor posture of defense and responses to the incident. Also of concern, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating stock sales made by executives after the breach occurred, but before it was disclosed. Security blogger and researcher Brian Krebs, a respected journalist in the field, wrote:

I cannot recall a previous data breach in which the breached company’s public outreach and response has been so haphazard and ill-conceived as the one coming right now from big-three credit bureau Equifax, which rather clumsily announced Thursday that an intrusion jeopardized Social Security numbers and other information on 143 million Americans.

http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/350197-equifax-breach-a-nightmare-that-should-serve-as-wake-up-call-for-feds

This is the final straw in the greed that perpetuates within the credit industry and congress:

"Again, from Brian Krebs:

The credit bureaus — which make piles of money by compiling incredibly detailed dossiers on consumers and selling that information to marketers — have for the most part shown themselves to be terrible stewards of very sensitive data, and are long overdue for more oversight from regulators and lawmakers. "



And I will file suit and not some arbitration BS................

[Orrex]

1. Credit ratings should be abolished

They are simply another tool intended, designed, and used to advance the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the poor.

[unblock]

3. Not so simple. Some notion of a credit score makes sense

But heavy regulation of it also makes sense.

[Orrex]

4. They should be maintained exclusively by the fed, then

Any corporate control, no matter how strictly they're nominally "regulated," will quickly lead to corruption and misuse, exactly as we're seeing now.

A credit rating simply does not (and arguably cannot) represent the true situation. It is a falsely simplified cookie-cutter score misrepresenting the complex and nuanced reality that it's purported to rate.

The score is erroneously used as a measure of trustworthiness, and it is entirely inadequate to that task. Did you blow out your credit card because your kid developed cancer and you lost your job, or because you went on an unrestrained shopping spree in Paris beyond your ability to pay? The score absolutely doesn't reflect this and it doesn't care; all it sees is that someone maxed out their credit card.

Until the score is guaranteed to be accurate (which is currently nowhere near the case) and guaranteed to represent what it purports to represent (which at present it absolutely does not), then it should be abolished.


It is a false measure used to punish the poor, often for circumstances entirely outside of their control.

[Kentonio]

2. The Republicans will probably blame it on too much regulation..

[angrychair]

5. Credit scores are a SCAM

It's complete BS. A credit scores only purpose is to leverage your debt level to the maximum amount a person can bare. It has nothing to do with your "trustworthiness" or "stability" or "debt/income ratio".

It is structured to make the person think they are in sound financial standing while at the same time encouraging perpetual indebtedness and a lifestyle that is by definition beyond the normal means of a person to live.

[C_U_L8R]

6. I'm not even sure what to do

Equifax says my info is likely stolen.
They offer some pseudo 'free' service that seems a slimy way to auto-enroll people into a paid service.
The other alternative is putting a security block on all service bureaus - which seems overkill and costs money.
I feel like I'm being blackmailed. The government needs to whack these fuckers
upside the head and get them in line.