Posted on 09/12/2017 4:47:12 AM PDT by Gennie
A lesson from the Equifax data breach – in the cyber security realm, we look at networks as falling into two categories: those that have been breached, and those that are going to get breached. It is clear for all Americans to see now, that the same is true of personal information, too. Either your personal information has been leaked, or it is going to get leaked.
Whether its Target, OPM (Office of Personnel Management), or Equifax – neither the government or corporations can protect individual privacy — at least not with the existing American system built upon the stone-aged nine digit SSN (Social Security Number). An entirely new system, based on block chain technology, will need to be developed. This will take years, if not decades, to accomplish – think of The Marshall Plan for personal privacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at strongholdcybersecurity.com ...
The SSN was issued as a retirement account number, and on the card it was clearly marked “not for identification.” (I have my original card.) Today it is the universal identification number and is used for hundreds of purposes other than the original.
It is given to credit bureaus without our consent, where a complete dossier is created, all under the SSN.
The SSN is a number without the slightest control. There is not even a check digit, an elementary protection against the transposition of numbers. Nothing. It has enough digits to theoretically handle 1 billion numbers. (But people die, and new ones are born.)
This is a huge problem, and no doubt the problem will become the justification for new, totalitarian measures that will make us wish they hadn’t “solved” the problem.
Some Mexican guy who crosses our southern border illegally and works for cash has more freedom than most Americans.
I think when the smoke clears and a year down the line when some stolen ID events lead back to Equifax...there’s going to be a tobacco-like law suit against Equifax...class-action deal...into the billions. If I were going to take a guess, I don’t think the company will be around in its present form in six to eight years. One of the other two companies will buy them out, maybe one-third of the current value.
I agree on the SSN number and it never should have been some form of national ID number. But I think that events of the 1960s and 1970s have changed that forever. A national ID could reverse this trend, but obviously...no one from the Democrats or GOP, wants to fix this.
Onambla has some dead guy from Connecticut’s SSN. Yeah he was born in America.
When my son was born in a foreign country the bitch at the desk told me I needed to give him a SSN. I said “no, I don’t”
She argued with me until her manager came over and reluctantly agreed that I didn’t. I then pointed at the bitch and said “is she even an American citizen?”
She wasn’t. Our consulates are filled with non-Americans, who bully American citizens. Total disgrace.
The State Department is as evil as the IRS. They both exist to harass Americans domestically and internationally.
They actually got access to the credit card area of Equifax. The I9 side wasn’t affected.
I haven’t seen anything about how the hackers got in.
Then-Attorney General William French Smith argued that a perfectly harmless ID card system would be necessary to reduce illegal immigration. A second cabinet member asked: why not tattoo a number on each American’s forearm?
According to Martin Anderson, the White House domestic policy adviser at the time, Reagan blurted out “My God, that’s the Mark of the Beast.” As Anderson wrote, “That was the end of the national identification card during the Reagan years.”
We all forget, all too often. Once again, the presumed premise of the problem leads us to bogus solutions.
The Federal Government, not any privately or publicly owned entity was ever meant to be the keeper or even have right and access to all citizenry information. Our founding respected our rights (both enumerated and inalienable) and our privacy. If you wanted someone to have your information, you gave it to them. It’s why getting a loan was big deal in the old days. You had to prove your worth and your reliability to a lender.
Think about this. With the latest advent of data collection on the internet, personal information collection, sales and distribution for marketing is big business. We do not own our personal information (healthcare, spending, debt, account balances, shopping habits, browsing habits, what we watch on TV, what hotels we stay in, where we work, our taxes, income, property value, net worth, the names of our kids, present and former addresses and employers.....).
There is nowhere to hide and it won’t change. So what do you do about it. Create a second identity early in life (maybe 2). ;o)
I’ve been around Germany....off and on...for over twenty years. I’ve seen their national ID card (the old version and new one with the chip/bio-metric picture). The card works. I admit, the cost factor would have to be modified or improved.
The forearm/tattoo story is one of the most naive episodes that come up from the Reagan era and we are lucky that the same characters weren’t making up reasons why we shouldn’t have automatic transmissions.
Perhaps these were the same Russian hackers who got into the DNC server? Oh, that’s right....it was an insider job.
I’ll bet we come to find the same thing about Equifax.
What needs to happen next is to make the penalties for hacking severe and to pursue hackers like mad dogs.
I’m generally against class-action lawsuits - but this time, I’m on board......
OTOH, I think this is just a sign of things to come.
Our digital world is a house of cards waiting to be brought down by independent hackers or foreign governments hackers......
I was in Germany too. What works for a country the size of Oregon doesn’t work here. It a math thing.
I saw how bad their healthcare was too, but I was there in the early nineties.
My IT genius son says the blockchain solution is on its way....cannot get here soon enough in my mind.
He says blockchain technology will have a greater impact on our world and lives than the internet did - and he was in on the leading edge of the internet in the early 90’s, and worth $1.3 million when 26.
Quite true. Also, the freedom to commit fraud for government handouts, credit cards, bank loans, etc...using an American's stolen identity.
“What needs to happen next is to make the penalties for hacking severe and to pursue hackers like mad dogs.”
You can drive over to China or Eastern Europe and arrest them for us.
What’s the over-under on the timing for Equifax to stash all their profits elsewhere, declare BK and then miraculously re-appear as the “new name, next gen, completely safe, etc.” credit-ripoff agency?!
Any security method can be rendered useless by Bob in Accounts Payable. He clicks on a phish and BOOM.
My wife’s company is about the best I have seen and they have an IT team dedicated to nothing but support.
Meanwhile, my server faced compromise because the network admin had an insecure login. Luckily I gave it a boring name and they went after a meatier-looking honey pot instead.
If you can’t handle the security end of the business you should go do something else.
I am getting disgusted with operations that keep losing data to hackers. How do you opt out of equifax?
L
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