Chinese hackers are behind the historic Equifax breach, one of the largest data breaches in history. The US has charged four Chinese military officers over the huge cyber-attack on credit rating giant Equifax. More than 147 million Americans were affected in 2017 when hackers stole sensitive personal data including names and addresses.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51449778

I wish the crooks at Equifax and the other agencies would allow us to all have our credit locked and require banks or whatever to call our phones (some sort of external verification.)

Currently, it requires a police report or... money.

At least that's my understanding of it, if anyone knows a free way of locking your credit let me know

DeltaMD90 wrote:

I wish the crooks at Equifax and the other agencies would allow us to all have our credit locked and require banks or whatever to call our phones (some sort of external verification.)

Currently, it requires a police report or... money.

At least that's my understanding of it, if anyone knows a free way of locking your credit let me know

Credit serves banks’ interests, not ours. Won’t change without MASSIVE consumer action.

Been going on for years. Aviation Week reported more than 10 years ago that the Chinese had penetrated the firewalls of all major US defense contractors. It's so encouraging to know that they have the blueprints for the Virgina class attack submarines. Sarcasm intended. Meanwhile, the Chinese don't even have commonly accepted culinary standards to keep these rogue viruses from breaking out.

SteelChair wrote:

Been going on for years. Aviation Week reported more than 10 years ago that the Chinese had penetrated the firewalls of all major US defense contractors. It's so encouraging to know that they have the blueprints for the Virgina class attack submarines. Sarcasm intended. Meanwhile, the Chinese don't even have commonly accepted culinary standards to keep these rogue viruses from breaking out.

not the first snooper and by far not the biggest one.

Learning from the US is learning to win. )

SteelChair wrote:

Been going on for years. Aviation Week reported more than 10 years ago that the Chinese had penetrated the firewalls of all major US defense contractors. It's so encouraging to know that they have the blueprints for the Virgina class attack submarines. Sarcasm intended. Meanwhile, the Chinese don't even have commonly accepted culinary standards to keep these rogue viruses from breaking out.

US contractors have been so sloppy you don't need to "penetrate the firewalls". Also, China can have fun with those blueprints. Really. Good luck. Also they can have fun with those conversions to metric and retooling their machines to the U.S. standard. Have fun with that.

Jouhou wrote:

SteelChair wrote:

Been going on for years. Aviation Week reported more than 10 years ago that the Chinese had penetrated the firewalls of all major US defense contractors. It's so encouraging to know that they have the blueprints for the Virgina class attack submarines. Sarcasm intended. Meanwhile, the Chinese don't even have commonly accepted culinary standards to keep these rogue viruses from breaking out.

US contractors have been so sloppy you don't need to "penetrate the firewalls". Also, China can have fun with those blueprints. Really. Good luck. Also they can have fun with those conversions to metric and retooling their machines to the U.S. standard. Have fun with that.

Granted, and then there is the whole lack of operational philosophy and historical context/institutional knowledge built up over decades necessary to successfully operate such machines. The USSR could not match the USN and USAF on those fronts, even with equipment that was occasionally technically on par, or even superior. Interestingly, I see this a lot in airlines also. The focus on these boards, for example, on new airplanes. UAL and AA have newer fleets than DAL yet DAL routinely out-performs them in on-time, completion, and profitability. But I guess I'm rambling.

SteelChair wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

SteelChair wrote:

Been going on for years. Aviation Week reported more than 10 years ago that the Chinese had penetrated the firewalls of all major US defense contractors. It's so encouraging to know that they have the blueprints for the Virgina class attack submarines. Sarcasm intended. Meanwhile, the Chinese don't even have commonly accepted culinary standards to keep these rogue viruses from breaking out.

US contractors have been so sloppy you don't need to "penetrate the firewalls". Also, China can have fun with those blueprints. Really. Good luck. Also they can have fun with those conversions to metric and retooling their machines to the U.S. standard. Have fun with that.

Granted, and then there is the whole lack of operational philosophy and historical context/institutional knowledge built up over decades necessary to successfully operate such machines. The USSR could not match the USN and USAF on those fronts, even with equipment that was occasionally technically on par, or even superior. Interestingly, I see this a lot in airlines also. The focus on these boards, for example, on new airplanes. UAL and AA have newer fleets than DAL yet DAL routinely out-performs them in on-time, completion, and profitability. But I guess I'm rambling.

One thing MOST people don't understand about the modern US defense contractor.....as one who worked for years at one during that period you mention was reported in AW, there were numerous honey pots created and entire divisions of people monitoring intrusions. Literally watching as an intruder breached a system and watched where they came from, what they got, and where they went back to....

You don't think the FBI just magically learned how to forensically trace the attack all the way back through to China, do you? After initial breaches, somewhere around the turn of the millennium, basically all major military contractors began stocking honey pots and began watching and making sure about what was seen a taken. Because you can't stop the cyber-thieves, they are persistent and continuous. So you have to watch and guide and track and trace. Yes, tons of critical data is still stolen and lost and there are still unknown attacks but far more often they are watched and shut down while attacking or allowed to get bad data and leave while being followed.

Cybercrime is a huge issue but there is an awful going on that you don't see or know about. Innocent average people get screwed with data losses etc. but the larger companies have a lot more actively tasked on this.

Tugg

SteelChair wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

SteelChair wrote:

Been going on for years. Aviation Week reported more than 10 years ago that the Chinese had penetrated the firewalls of all major US defense contractors. It's so encouraging to know that they have the blueprints for the Virgina class attack submarines. Sarcasm intended. Meanwhile, the Chinese don't even have commonly accepted culinary standards to keep these rogue viruses from breaking out.

US contractors have been so sloppy you don't need to "penetrate the firewalls". Also, China can have fun with those blueprints. Really. Good luck. Also they can have fun with those conversions to metric and retooling their machines to the U.S. standard. Have fun with that.

Granted, and then there is the whole lack of operational philosophy and historical context/institutional knowledge built up over decades necessary to successfully operate such machines. The USSR could not match the USN and USAF on those fronts, even with equipment that was occasionally technically on par, or even superior. Interestingly, I see this a lot in airlines also. The focus on these boards, for example, on new airplanes. UAL and AA have newer fleets than DAL yet DAL routinely out-performs them in on-time, completion, and profitability. But I guess I'm rambling.

Right. At this point it's not good or innovative design that makes our fleets perform well.

The weird thing about these attacks is that T the end of the day the victim lose twice, once it gets hit with an attack by a highly sophisticated state actor and the second time when some media-hungry prosecutor comes around for the habitual shakedown. It's like if the Spetnaz equivalent of Seal Team 6 decided to rob a local PO Box office and then prosecutors came around giving them massive fines for not being able to repel their attack.

Pyrex wrote:

The weird thing about these attacks is that T the end of the day the victim lose twice, once it gets hit with an attack by a highly sophisticated state actor and the second time when some media-hungry prosecutor comes around for the habitual shakedown. It's like if the Spetnaz equivalent of Seal Team 6 decided to rob a local PO Box office and then prosecutors came around giving them massive fines for not being able to repel their attack.

The American public is the victim. What's more dystopian than a totalitarian government monitoring your every move and leveraging it against you? A corporation doing that exact thing. They shouldn't have that information to be hacked in the first place, if you ask me.

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

The weird thing about these attacks is that T the end of the day the victim lose twice, once it gets hit with an attack by a highly sophisticated state actor and the second time when some media-hungry prosecutor comes around for the habitual shakedown. It's like if the Spetnaz equivalent of Seal Team 6 decided to rob a local PO Box office and then prosecutors came around giving them massive fines for not being able to repel their attack.

The American public is the victim. What's more dystopian than a totalitarian government monitoring your every move and leveraging it against you? A corporation doing that exact thing. They shouldn't have that information to be hacked in the first place, if you ask me.

I didn't.

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

The weird thing about these attacks is that T the end of the day the victim lose twice, once it gets hit with an attack by a highly sophisticated state actor and the second time when some media-hungry prosecutor comes around for the habitual shakedown. It's like if the Spetnaz equivalent of Seal Team 6 decided to rob a local PO Box office and then prosecutors came around giving them massive fines for not being able to repel their attack.

The American public is the victim. What's more dystopian than a totalitarian government monitoring your every move and leveraging it against you? A corporation doing that exact thing. They shouldn't have that information to be hacked in the first place, if you ask me.

I didn't.

Nobody asked you for your weird rant supporting one of the most embarrassing entities in America and calling them a "victim" either. It's one of those things that people can point to in order to show how capitalism is a failure and results in the same awful things as communist societies.

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

The American public is the victim. What's more dystopian than a totalitarian government monitoring your every move and leveraging it against you? A corporation doing that exact thing. They shouldn't have that information to be hacked in the first place, if you ask me.

I didn't.

Nobody asked you for your weird rant supporting one of the most embarrassing entities in America and calling them a "victim" either. It's one of those things that people can point to in order to show how capitalism is a failure and results in the same awful things as communist societies.

Not really sure how your inability to hold a decent credit score factors into this. Your feelings towards them are completely irrelevant towards this discussion, Equifax is a legal business, providing a service (which many consider valuable) legally. If you have an issue with that take it up with your Congressman/woman and have them change the law. Just because you don't like a business doesn't mean crimes committed against them are not somehow crimes, otherwise someone could just, say, firebomb a Planned Parenthood office and get away with it.

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

I didn't.

Nobody asked you for your weird rant supporting one of the most embarrassing entities in America and calling them a "victim" either. It's one of those things that people can point to in order to show how capitalism is a failure and results in the same awful things as communist societies.

Not really sure how your inability to hold a decent credit score factors into this. Your feelings towards them are completely irrelevant towards this discussion, Equifax is a legal business, providing a service (which many consider valuable) legally. If you have an issue with that take it up with your Congressman/woman and have them change the law. Just because you don't like a business doesn't mean crimes committed against them are not somehow crimes, otherwise someone could just, say, firebomb a Planned Parenthood office and get away with it.

Most of us employ an entirely different axiom: a thief is a thief, whether sanctioned on paper or not.

Aaron747 wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

Nobody asked you for your weird rant supporting one of the most embarrassing entities in America and calling them a "victim" either. It's one of those things that people can point to in order to show how capitalism is a failure and results in the same awful things as communist societies.

Not really sure how your inability to hold a decent credit score factors into this. Your feelings towards them are completely irrelevant towards this discussion, Equifax is a legal business, providing a service (which many consider valuable) legally. If you have an issue with that take it up with your Congressman/woman and have them change the law. Just because you don't like a business doesn't mean crimes committed against them are not somehow crimes, otherwise someone could just, say, firebomb a Planned Parenthood office and get away with it.

Most of us employ an entirely different axiom: a thief is a thief, whether sanctioned on paper or not.

??

You could either be saying the Chinese are thiefs (which is true) or that Equifax are thiefs (which is just idiotic and shows a complete lack of understanding of what their business model is). For all your faults you are usually much smarter than that, but I guess I could be wrong.

But if anyone feels so strongly about an entity not called Apple or Google holding and analyzing information you voluntarily agreed to provide them sure, go right ahead, petition your congresscritter, let's get rid of credit rating agencies. Just don't come crying when it becomes more difficult to get a phone plan or rent a house, or when your mortgage or credit card debt becomes more expensive because lenders aren't able to easily differentiate between different types of risks.

Pyrex wrote:

But if anyone feels so strongly about an entity not called Apple or Google holding and analyzing information you voluntarily agreed to provide them sure

Never said what they are doing with private data is okay either. As for the sky falling if credit agencies go the way of the dodo, that’s a gloomy overstatement and you know it. We are not far away from having the capability to store biographic information of all types on our person, eliminating both identity theft and the need for third-party evaluations of individual “worth”.

Pyrex wrote:

Aaron747 wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Not really sure how your inability to hold a decent credit score factors into this. Your feelings towards them are completely irrelevant towards this discussion, Equifax is a legal business, providing a service (which many consider valuable) legally. If you have an issue with that take it up with your Congressman/woman and have them change the law. Just because you don't like a business doesn't mean crimes committed against them are not somehow crimes, otherwise someone could just, say, firebomb a Planned Parenthood office and get away with it.

Most of us employ an entirely different axiom: a thief is a thief, whether sanctioned on paper or not.

??

You could either be saying the Chinese are thiefs (which is true) or that Equifax are thiefs (which is just idiotic and shows a complete lack of understanding of what their business model is). For all your faults you are usually much smarter than that, but I guess I could be wrong.

But if anyone feels so strongly about an entity not called Apple or Google holding and analyzing information you voluntarily agreed to provide them sure, go right ahead, petition your congresscritter, let's get rid of credit rating agencies. Just don't come crying when it becomes more difficult to get a phone plan or rent a house, or when your mortgage or credit card debt becomes more expensive because lenders aren't able to easily differentiate between different types of risks.

When tech companies abuse data, I can elect to not use their services. I'm locked out of Twitter because asking for my phone number when they've abused that information before goes too far for me, I won't give that to them. When Facebook stopped allowing people to opt out of their creepy invasive B.S. I stopped using it. Credit rating agencies don't give you an option of whether or not they invade your privacy, they just do. I'm not a China fan and I'm not defending what they do but Equifax is more of a co-conspirator in a scheme to undermine Americans than they are a victim.

I see my disdain for both China and Equifax being related. They both do not see people as having a right to privacy. They both will do whatever they want to you and you'll never have any say over your own fate. Here in the US, we value our ability to control our own destinies. I don't think credit rating agencies in their current form have a place in our society. At least, they shouldn't be able to gather as much invasive information on us as they do.

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Aaron747 wrote:

Most of us employ an entirely different axiom: a thief is a thief, whether sanctioned on paper or not.

??

You could either be saying the Chinese are thiefs (which is true) or that Equifax are thiefs (which is just idiotic and shows a complete lack of understanding of what their business model is). For all your faults you are usually much smarter than that, but I guess I could be wrong.

But if anyone feels so strongly about an entity not called Apple or Google holding and analyzing information you voluntarily agreed to provide them sure, go right ahead, petition your congresscritter, let's get rid of credit rating agencies. Just don't come crying when it becomes more difficult to get a phone plan or rent a house, or when your mortgage or credit card debt becomes more expensive because lenders aren't able to easily differentiate between different types of risks.

When tech companies abuse data, I can elect to not use their services. I'm locked out of Twitter because asking for my phone number when they've abused that information before goes too far for me, I won't give that to them. When Facebook stopped allowing people to opt out of their creepy invasive B.S. I stopped using it. Credit rating agencies don't give you an option of whether or not they invade your privacy, they just do. I'm not a China fan and I'm not defending what they do but Equifax is more of a co-conspirator in a scheme to undermine Americans than they are a victim.

I see my disdain for both China and Equifax being related. They both do not see people as having a right to privacy. They both will do whatever they want to you and you'll never have any say over your own fate. Here in the US, we value our ability to control our own destinies. I don't think credit rating agencies in their current form have a place in our society. At least, they shouldn't be able to gather as much invasive information on us as they do.

You can opt not to have a bank account, too.

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

??

You could either be saying the Chinese are thiefs (which is true) or that Equifax are thiefs (which is just idiotic and shows a complete lack of understanding of what their business model is). For all your faults you are usually much smarter than that, but I guess I could be wrong.

But if anyone feels so strongly about an entity not called Apple or Google holding and analyzing information you voluntarily agreed to provide them sure, go right ahead, petition your congresscritter, let's get rid of credit rating agencies. Just don't come crying when it becomes more difficult to get a phone plan or rent a house, or when your mortgage or credit card debt becomes more expensive because lenders aren't able to easily differentiate between different types of risks.

When tech companies abuse data, I can elect to not use their services. I'm locked out of Twitter because asking for my phone number when they've abused that information before goes too far for me, I won't give that to them. When Facebook stopped allowing people to opt out of their creepy invasive B.S. I stopped using it. Credit rating agencies don't give you an option of whether or not they invade your privacy, they just do. I'm not a China fan and I'm not defending what they do but Equifax is more of a co-conspirator in a scheme to undermine Americans than they are a victim.

I see my disdain for both China and Equifax being related. They both do not see people as having a right to privacy. They both will do whatever they want to you and you'll never have any say over your own fate. Here in the US, we value our ability to control our own destinies. I don't think credit rating agencies in their current form have a place in our society. At least, they shouldn't be able to gather as much invasive information on us as they do.

You can opt not to have a bank account, too.

Yeah, okay, tell me how to do that. I'm required to take my paycheck as direct deposit. Let's start there. I'm frequently paying bills where cash isn't an option. So, no, I can't opt out of that. I'm also required to carry a government credit card, which I'm vehemently opposed to but that's lobbyists at work I think.

Meanwhile, social media is non-essential and kind of unhealthy.

Aaron747 wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

But if anyone feels so strongly about an entity not called Apple or Google holding and analyzing information you voluntarily agreed to provide them sure

Never said what they are doing with private data is okay either. As for the sky falling if credit agencies go the way of the dodo, that’s a gloomy overstatement and you know it. We are not far away from having the capability to store biographic information of all types on our person, eliminating both identity theft and the need for third-party evaluations of individual “worth”.

Nobody said the sky is falling, just that everyone's life is going to be more inconvenient, and it will disproportionately impact lower income people who need greater access to credit, can't plop down three months of rent upfront when renting an apartment, etc.. And that it is a far, far cry to call what they do theft.

Storing biographic information on yourself does not do you any good if you are applying for or verifying something remotely, and third-party verification of worth will always be valuable as most parties looking at whatever personal information you think you will be carrying around with you simply won't have the breath of data or the models to put that into context, and, perhaps even more importantly, need some measure of comparability. Heck, even government agencies (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) rely on FICO scores to decide which loans they will and will not accept. And banking regulators for sure take a very close look at the FICO score of whoever the entities they supervise lend to.

But if someone wants to have private corporations get out of there identity verification business by all means do it, heard there government has a good database called e-Verify, perhaps we can just make everyone use it. Oh, wait...

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

When tech companies abuse data, I can elect to not use their services. I'm locked out of Twitter because asking for my phone number when they've abused that information before goes too far for me, I won't give that to them. When Facebook stopped allowing people to opt out of their creepy invasive B.S. I stopped using it. Credit rating agencies don't give you an option of whether or not they invade your privacy, they just do. I'm not a China fan and I'm not defending what they do but Equifax is more of a co-conspirator in a scheme to undermine Americans than they are a victim.

I see my disdain for both China and Equifax being related. They both do not see people as having a right to privacy. They both will do whatever they want to you and you'll never have any say over your own fate. Here in the US, we value our ability to control our own destinies. I don't think credit rating agencies in their current form have a place in our society. At least, they shouldn't be able to gather as much invasive information on us as they do.

You can opt not to have a bank account, too.

Yeah, okay, tell me how to do that. I'm required to take my paycheck as direct deposit. Let's start there. I'm frequently paying bills where cash isn't an option. So, no, I can't opt out of that. I'm also required to carry a government credit card, which I'm vehemently opposed to but that's lobbyists at work I think.

Meanwhile, social media is non-essential and kind of unhealthy.

Plenty of people in the U.S. live without bank accounts. Many / most illegal aliens, for once. That is why God invented pre-paid debit cards, check- cashing stores, etc.

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

You can opt not to have a bank account, too.

Yeah, okay, tell me how to do that. I'm required to take my paycheck as direct deposit. Let's start there. I'm frequently paying bills where cash isn't an option. So, no, I can't opt out of that. I'm also required to carry a government credit card, which I'm vehemently opposed to but that's lobbyists at work I think.

Meanwhile, social media is non-essential and kind of unhealthy.

Plenty of people in the U.S. live without bank accounts. Many / most illegal aliens, for once. That is why God invented pre-paid debit cards, check- cashing stores, etc.

I'm pretty sure illegal aliens can't do much, and are treated as slave labor. Most certainly can't work for the government either.

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

Yeah, okay, tell me how to do that. I'm required to take my paycheck as direct deposit. Let's start there. I'm frequently paying bills where cash isn't an option. So, no, I can't opt out of that. I'm also required to carry a government credit card, which I'm vehemently opposed to but that's lobbyists at work I think.

Meanwhile, social media is non-essential and kind of unhealthy.

Plenty of people in the U.S. live without bank accounts. Many / most illegal aliens, for once. That is why God invented pre-paid debit cards, check- cashing stores, etc.

I'm pretty sure illegal aliens can't do much, and are treated as slave labor. Most certainly can't work for the government either.

Give them time...

Also, sorry to hear you were concripted into working for the U.S. government and had no job alternatives - I will call Jane Fonda and get right on that.

While you are there, though, perhaps you can do something about your colleagues in government that actually require the use of FICO scores by the private sector, in one way or another. You know, like the folks at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC, OCC, Federal Reserve and quite probably the CFPB do.

Pyrex wrote:

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Plenty of people in the U.S. live without bank accounts. Many / most illegal aliens, for once. That is why God invented pre-paid debit cards, check- cashing stores, etc.

I'm pretty sure illegal aliens can't do much, and are treated as slave labor. Most certainly can't work for the government either.

Give them time...

Also, sorry to hear you were concripted into working for the U.S. government and had no job alternatives - I will call Jane Fonda and get right on that.

While you are there, though, perhaps you can do something about your colleagues in government that actually require the use of FICO scores by the private sector, in one way or another. You know, like the folks at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC, OCC, Federal Reserve and quite probably the CFPB do.

She didn't say she was conscripted - seriously, what is with the hyperpartisan bleating on about this stuff? Ya'll are on the FBI's case for Carter Page and EPA for 'oh noes, it's so difficult to build a pipeline' when the former has kept us safe for nearly 20 years post-9/11 and the latter has kept our air and water clean since Nixon.

Pyrex wrote:

The weird thing about these attacks is that T the end of the day the victim lose twice, once it gets hit with an attack by a highly sophisticated state actor and the second time when some media-hungry prosecutor comes around for the habitual shakedown. It's like if the Spetnaz equivalent of Seal Team 6 decided to rob a local PO Box office and then prosecutors came around giving them massive fines for not being able to repel their attack.

Yeah, I'm so glad someone is out there defending those poor, poor billion dollar corporations who seem to always be the victims...


Not only do they gather personal information on every individual in the country through coercion, use that information for profit and then refuse to even give it to the people it belongs to, but their greed won't even let them invest in proper cyber security to adequately protect their own business and the information of the people whose life they can damage by not protecting their personal data.

Boo f#*%king hoo.

Francoflier wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

The weird thing about these attacks is that T the end of the day the victim lose twice, once it gets hit with an attack by a highly sophisticated state actor and the second time when some media-hungry prosecutor comes around for the habitual shakedown. It's like if the Spetnaz equivalent of Seal Team 6 decided to rob a local PO Box office and then prosecutors came around giving them massive fines for not being able to repel their attack.

Yeah, I'm so glad someone is out there defending those poor, poor billion dollar corporations who seem to always be the victims...


Not only do they gather personal information on every individual in the country through coercion, use that information for profit and then refuse to even give it to the people it belongs to, but their greed won't even let them invest in proper cyber security to adequately protect their own business and the information of the people whose life they can damage by not protecting their personal data.

Boo f#*%king hoo.

"Proper security"? What the hell is "proper security"? Clearly the $400+ million a year J.P. Morgan spends in cybersecurity in what is perhaps the most comprehensive cybersecurity organization in the private sector is not enough, as they got shaken down as well when they got hit, so what is? $1 billion / year? $2 billion / year? $10 billion / year? Something tells me that for people like you there will never be a number high enough at what point out becomes "proper", this is just a usual anti-capitalist rant as is so common on this forum.

No matter how much someone in the private sector invests in cyber security, there is no way they will ever be able to stop a sophisticated, committed, state actor with an unlimited budget (regardless if we are talking about the NSA or their Russian, Chinese or Israeli equivalents). Cyber warfare is warfare. Did the Polish farmers who had fields along the German border get sued by Poland for failing to stop the German Panzers rolling through?

Pyrex, until Equifax allows you to have free 2 person verification or some sort of lock/hoops to jump through when applying for credit, for free and whenever people want, they'll NEVER be the victims in my book.

Multiple family members and I (and probably most on this forum) have had identities stolen to some degree, any Joe Schmoe with your info (often hacked from Equifax itself) can apply for credit and cause you a world of hurt (or at least a pain in the ass) and too bad for you, should have shelled out a bunch of money to some credit monitoring company.

Screw Equifax. I wish they'd be sued out of existence with the rest of them but they'll outbillion and outlobby anything thrown at them.

DeltaMD90 wrote:

I wish the crooks at Equifax and the other agencies would allow us to all have our credit locked and require banks or whatever to call our phones (some sort of external verification.)

Currently, it requires a police report or... money.

At least that's my understanding of it, if anyone knows a free way of locking your credit let me know

Years ago it cost me 10 dollars for each credit agency to lock my credit but my understanding now is congress passed a law after the Equifax scandal that there is no longer a fee to lock or unlock your credit.

https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/pf/fre ... index.html

Pyrex wrote:

Francoflier wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

The weird thing about these attacks is that T the end of the day the victim lose twice, once it gets hit with an attack by a highly sophisticated state actor and the second time when some media-hungry prosecutor comes around for the habitual shakedown. It's like if the Spetnaz equivalent of Seal Team 6 decided to rob a local PO Box office and then prosecutors came around giving them massive fines for not being able to repel their attack.

Yeah, I'm so glad someone is out there defending those poor, poor billion dollar corporations who seem to always be the victims...


Not only do they gather personal information on every individual in the country through coercion, use that information for profit and then refuse to even give it to the people it belongs to, but their greed won't even let them invest in proper cyber security to adequately protect their own business and the information of the people whose life they can damage by not protecting their personal data.

Boo f#*%king hoo.

"Proper security"? What the hell is "proper security"? Clearly the $400+ million a year J.P. Morgan spends in cybersecurity in what is perhaps the most comprehensive cybersecurity organization in the private sector is not enough, as they got shaken down as well when they got hit, so what is? $1 billion / year? $2 billion / year? $10 billion / year? Something tells me that for people like you there will never be a number high enough at what point out becomes "proper", this is just a usual anti-capitalist rant as is so common on this forum.

No matter how much someone in the private sector invests in cyber security, there is no way they will ever be able to stop a sophisticated, committed, state actor with an unlimited budget (regardless if we are talking about the NSA or their Russian, Chinese or Israeli equivalents). Cyber warfare is warfare. Did the Polish farmers who had fields along the German border get sued by Poland for failing to stop the German Panzers rolling through?

Your comparisons tend to be a bit... off. It's espionage. They're using the information to target and gain leverage on Americans who might have something they want. It makes things a bit awkward to me, and my family. I definitely can not set foot in China ever again. I kinda hope my cousin does not marry her long term boyfriend, a Chinese national and supposedly the son of a ccp official. It makes family gatherings awkward because everyone is afraid to talk to him. If they get married and do it in China, half of the family won't be able to attend. Hopefully they would do it here or in a third country.

But I digress, you're also acting as if the anger is directed towards the entire banking industry and financial system, like it's all black and white. All I'm saying is the credit rating firms keep too much and too invasive of data. I'd chill if they didn't. But financial info is one of the biggest things foreign agents need to find ideal targets to manipulate. It's a national security issue.

Jouhou wrote:

Pyrex wrote:

Francoflier wrote:

Yeah, I'm so glad someone is out there defending those poor, poor billion dollar corporations who seem to always be the victims...


Not only do they gather personal information on every individual in the country through coercion, use that information for profit and then refuse to even give it to the people it belongs to, but their greed won't even let them invest in proper cyber security to adequately protect their own business and the information of the people whose life they can damage by not protecting their personal data.

Boo f#*%king hoo.

"Proper security"? What the hell is "proper security"? Clearly the $400+ million a year J.P. Morgan spends in cybersecurity in what is perhaps the most comprehensive cybersecurity organization in the private sector is not enough, as they got shaken down as well when they got hit, so what is? $1 billion / year? $2 billion / year? $10 billion / year? Something tells me that for people like you there will never be a number high enough at what point out becomes "proper", this is just a usual anti-capitalist rant as is so common on this forum.

No matter how much someone in the private sector invests in cyber security, there is no way they will ever be able to stop a sophisticated, committed, state actor with an unlimited budget (regardless if we are talking about the NSA or their Russian, Chinese or Israeli equivalents). Cyber warfare is warfare. Did the Polish farmers who had fields along the German border get sued by Poland for failing to stop the German Panzers rolling through?

Your comparisons tend to be a bit... off. It's espionage. They're using the information to target and gain leverage on Americans who might have something they want. It makes things a bit awkward to me, and my family. I definitely can not set foot in China ever again. I kinda hope my cousin does not marry her long term boyfriend, a Chinese national and supposedly the son of a ccp official. It makes family gatherings awkward because everyone is afraid to talk to him. If they get married and do it in China, half of the family won't be able to attend. Hopefully they would do it here or in a third country.

But I digress, you're also acting as if the anger is directed towards the entire banking industry and financial system, like it's all black and white. All I'm saying is the credit rating firms keep too much and too invasive of data. I'd chill if they didn't. But financial info is one of the biggest things foreign agents need to find ideal targets to manipulate. It's a national security issue.

And part of the reason they are forced to keep that much data is because government regulators force them to...

Pyrex wrote:

...
And part of the reason they are forced to keep that much data is because government regulators force them to...

Hmm. Not to sell data for 10 cents or to milk maximum from sub-prime borrowers.

Corps are collecting and keeping for data analytics and to sell information.

Regulation may specify how far back you have to keep data offline for auditing purposes. Such regulations came into place because corporations were writing in-house rules to destroy e-mails/messages and financial data.

China is the number one problem the us has to face, just hacking