Free Republic

Where Are The Damned Handcuffs? It's time to start locking people up and destroying businesses with federal criminal indictments. The Internet has made many things very easy -- and fast. But it has also made many things quite-insecure, especially when corners are cut. I can design and implement extremely secure internet-connected data facilities and services. I not only have done so they're in active use right now. Some are more-important than others, but all are important to me. Among other things my home is connected via same, never mind the work product I've developed for the last, oh, 30ish years...

Credit reporting agency Equifax reported a massive security breach on Thursday. The breach may have exposed Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and other important personal information that has left 143 million US consumers vulnerable to ID theft. Equifax immediately offered a complimentary ID-theft monitoring program called TrustedID. However, blowback ensued quickly on Friday as the TrustedID terms of service require users to waive their right to sue or join a class action lawsuit to receive the monitoring. An Equifax spokesperson said the waiver “applies to the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection products, and not the cybersecurity...

To determine if your personal information may have been impacted by this incident, please follow the below steps: Click on the below link, “Check Potential Impact,” and provide your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number. Based on that information, you will receive a message indicating whether your personal information may have been impacted by this incident. Regardless of whether your information may have been impacted, we will provide you the option to enroll in TrustedID Premier. You will receive an enrollment date. You should return to this site and follow the “How do I...

The credit reporting agency Equifax said Thursday that hackers gained access to sensitive personal data — Social Security numbers, birth dates and home addresses — for up to 143 million Americans, a major cybersecurity breach at a firm that serves as one of the three major clearinghouses for Americans’ credit histories. Equifax said the breach began in May and continued until it was discovered in late July. It said hackers exploited a “website application vulnerability” and obtained personal data about British and Canadian consumers as well as Americans. Social Security numbers and birth dates are particularly sensitive data, giving those...

Equifax, one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, said on Thursday that a data breach left Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and other sensitive information for 143 million United States consumers vulnerable to hackers. Criminals gained access to certain files in the company’s system from mid-May to July by exploiting a weak point in a website application, according to an investigation by Equifax. The company said that it discovered the intrusion on July 29 and has since found no evidence of unauthorized activity on its main consumer or commercial credit reporting databases. Hackers were able to retrieve...

Security data breach equifax Equifax data leak could involve 143 million consumers Posted 25 minutes ago by Ron Miller (@ron_miller) Data leaks have become so commonplace that it’s incredibly easy to become numb to them, but credit reporting service Equifax announced a doozy today that when all is said and done could involve 143 million consumers. This is bad. It was a treasure trove of information for the bad guys out there and included Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. As though that weren’t bad enough, 209,000 people had their credit card info...

A Brooklyn man is suing Equifax for reporting that he has no financial history because the credit-reporting agency’s system won’t recognize his first name. God Gazarov was named after his grandfather. Gazarov filed a federal lawsuit on Friday after more than two years of fighting with the agency. He claims that the agency’s refusal to accept his name as legitimate stopped him from buying an Infiniti car last year. According to the 26-year-old, an Equifax customer service employee suggested that he change his name to fix the problem. The owner of the Gold Hard Cash jewelry store claims he has...

The companies that determine Americans' credit scores are about to come under government oversight for the first time. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday that it will start supervising the 30 largest firms that make up 94 percent of the industry. That includes the three big credit reporting firms: Equifax Inc., Experian and TransUnion. In remarks prepared for a speech Monday, Richard Cordray, the government agency's director, said that scorekeeping by credit bureaus plays such a large role in Americans' financial lives, it requires scrutiny.

A mistake on your credit report can cost you literally thousands of dollars, especially in this economy. So what can you expect from a big credit bureau if you ask them to investigate and correct the error? The answer, for many consumers: About 50 cents worth of effort, conducted by offshore workers at third-party firms. That’s just one of the findings from SmartMoney’s investigation into why credit-report errors continue to pop up so frequently—and why consumers often have so much trouble getting them fixed. To follow what one consumer advocate calls an “electronic hot potato,” SmartMoney pieced together a depiction...

U.S. consumers are falling deeper into debt, an official at one of the largest U.S. credit bureaus told Reuters on Tuesday, as the U.S. recession deepens and job losses mount. Dann Adams, president of U.S. Information Systems for Equifax Inc, said the already high rate of personal bankruptcies could increase. "We've seen a continued ramp up of delinquencies across the board," he said. That would pile more bad debt on banks already struggling to cope with heavy mortgage-related losses. Consumers are missing payments on mortgages, credit cards, and auto loans, Adams said, adding that Americans may be growing more reluctant...

Angela P. Williams says she got nothing but a runaround from Equifax as she tried for more than a decade to clear up an identity mix-up that ruined her credit. Now she's hitting the credit-reporting giant where it hurts: on the bottom line. An Orlando jury awarded Williams a multimillion-dollar verdict against Equifax for years of failing to correct dramatic errors in Williams' credit report that led to her credit score being trashed.

Equifax: Laptop With Employee Data Stolen By HARRY R. WEBER AP Business Writer © 2006 The Associated Press ATLANTA — Equifax Inc., one of the nation's three major credit bureaus, said Tuesday a company laptop containing employee names and Social Security numbers was stolen from an employee who was traveling by train near London. The theft, which could affect as many as 2,500 of the Atlanta-based company's 4,600 employees, happened May 29 and all employees were notified June 7, spokesman David Rubinger said. Employee names and partial and full Social Security numbers were on the computer's hard drive, though Rubinger...

Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign used a controversial marketing practice offered by one of the country's three credit bureaus to collect additional information last year about people who, according to the campaign, indicated that they would like to help the candidate in the primaries and caucuses. ROLL CALL reports on Thursday: The contracts with Equifax Marketing Services worth about $36,000 called for the company to find so-called 'appendages' in its massive consumer database. Appending is a practice that involves plugging bits of information into databases in order to collect e-mail addresses or flesh out consumer profiles. The practice has been...