Just curious what folks are doing, if anything, to protect their finances etc, after the Equifax breach. Some have suggested credit freeze or credit monitoring.
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Equifax breach
- Thread starter toronado455
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I already had a credit freeze on, due to another data leak that involved my wife and I. Equifax was one of the companies that had our info and froze our accounts. Not sure what else we could do, from this point onward. I have to wait till the 14th to register with Equifax for credit monitoring or whatever they're going to do.
I would wait to decide what to do. There is a lot misinformation in the news right now. If you already have a credit freeze that already affords you some protection. It is unclear from what I read if enrolling in the Equifax credit monitoring offer because of this hack would allow you to participate in the class action suit.
Actually, Equifax broke down and changed their terms on the no lawsuit issue. They caught too much flak over it. They know they're going to get sued and nothing they do can block that. The courts would laugh them out into the streets.
Credit freeze with all 3 companies is the only way to protect your credit.
Signing up for credit "monitoring" services is like installing anti-virus on your Mac. You are actually increasing your attack surface with no real benefit. Credit freezes STOP anyone from establishing credit as you. Credit monitoring simply lets you know AFTER someone is working to or has already stolen your credit.
Nearly everyone's PII data is already out there for the taking on the dark web (Equifax breach does not change much). Therefore, protecting yourself with a credit freeze is currently the best defense by far.
Signing up for credit "monitoring" services is like installing anti-virus on your Mac. You are actually increasing your attack surface with no real benefit. Credit freezes STOP anyone from establishing credit as you. Credit monitoring simply lets you know AFTER someone is working to or has already stolen your credit.
Nearly everyone's PII data is already out there for the taking on the dark web (Equifax breach does not change much). Therefore, protecting yourself with a credit freeze is currently the best defense by far.
Yes to this. I just did it early this morning (for all the good it will do?). I would think it mandatory at this point.
I'm having trouble locating information as to whether the data on Equifax's servers was encrypted. If so, and if it was competently done, this would minimize the risk of have personal data compromised. Has anyone seen a news report stating whether the data were encrypted? I'd hate to think that Equifax was so incompetent that they failed to do this routine task. But then again, they had a music major as their IT security director. 
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1-call all 3 credit monitoring companies and set up freeze. Have your debit card ready, it will cost you up to $10 each depending on what state you live in. Equifax is free now, well you know why.
2-pull you 3 credit reports, print and review so you have a baseline. Make sure your printer is full of paper.
annualcreditreport.com
3-monitor your band accts and cc accts daily.
4-as for equifax's free credit monitoring, that system is over whelmed, I have still not received my email from them confirming being setup for the service and it has been 7 days. They will probably find a way to eff that up too.
5-hope that congress kicks their a$$. Hope the 3 execs that dumped stock go to jail.
freeze phone #'s
- Equifax — 1-800-349-9960
- Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742
- TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872
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You can do a credit freeze online, too. It's easier that way and, if your state has a beef with one of the agencies you may even get a freeze free of charge. I did when one of our insurers let our info out last year. We got free freezes through our secretary of state.
Yes, I know. When I tried on 9-9 to do it online all 3 sites were jammed and they timed out. Late that night tried online again, same thing. Then I called trans Union, done in 4 minutes, then experian, done. Then our beloved equifax, no go. Sunday 9-10 got thru on phone.
This gets worse. There was a second breach at Equifax.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...51/equifax-confirms-another-security-incident
BL.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...51/equifax-confirms-another-security-incident
BL.
How funny.. Congress was about to vote on a bill that would weaken consumer protections on their credit, forego any transparency by all 3 credit reporting bureaus, and limit the amount of damages consumers could claim, the day that the breach was announced, in the name of "protecting Americans".
Since the announcement, no further talk of any bill for the credit bureaus has been scheduled or discussed.
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/21/552427628/equifax-breach-puts-credit-bureaus-oversight-in-question
Apparently, no-one in the majority of Congress wanted any real oversight of the bureaus. Then the breach happened.
BL.
Since the announcement, no further talk of any bill for the credit bureaus has been scheduled or discussed.
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/21/552427628/equifax-breach-puts-credit-bureaus-oversight-in-question
Apparently, no-one in the majority of Congress wanted any real oversight of the bureaus. Then the breach happened.
BL.
I can’t find a way online to freeze my credit. I have the numbers even Innonis 1-800-540-2505 but would much rather do it online.
Also I hear people are having issues with freezing and some are not getting pins. Therefore they are locked out.
Any tips would be appreciated !
Also I hear people are having issues with freezing and some are not getting pins. Therefore they are locked out.
Any tips would be appreciated !
All 4 companies have sites where you can freeze online. Online is probably busier. Just call in, you can do all 4 in 15 minutes. done
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NOt to worry, the CEO et al are resigning, now looking for ocean front homes in Palm Harbor and their daughters are looking an new sport horses for competing in Wellington Florida....life is tough.
Not necessarily. When I did my freezes online I was given the option of mail or email/online only. I chose email/online, and all 4 were pretty explicit about them not mailing it and in bold letters said something along the lines of "this is your only copy, please print and save". YMMV.
FYI, the FTC set up a FAQ page:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs
What I like about this is they provide both links and phone numbers for the three main credit reporting companies. The links take you directly to the pages to start the freeze process for each company (well... except for TransUnion... you have to click a few more links for that one). Also, they have answers to some other common questions.
Only thing I haven't decided is whether to use those links, or to call each company. My preference is currently to use the links. I just think there are fewer chances of problems that way.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs
What I like about this is they provide both links and phone numbers for the three main credit reporting companies. The links take you directly to the pages to start the freeze process for each company (well... except for TransUnion... you have to click a few more links for that one). Also, they have answers to some other common questions.
Only thing I haven't decided is whether to use those links, or to call each company. My preference is currently to use the links. I just think there are fewer chances of problems that way.
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PII data does not require encryption, however, PCI data does, if not tokenized. However, that isn't the problem, as while the fields for the PCI data will have to be encrypted, the rest of the data is not in a restful state, meaning that the entire disk could be open, and will not be encrypted in a state of rest.
What I mean by that is this. If the server is turned off, the disk will sit there with its data encrypted; a key will need to be used to unlock the drive on startup so that the data can be accessed. That way, if the server is physically compromised (read: drives pulled from it to be put into another server, the data will not be accessible without the key, among other things.
If Equifax did not adhere to a true PCI environment, they will have bigger issues to deal with, as there are going to be even bigger ramifications to deal with. I'd even venture to say that if Equifax was not PCI Compliant, that would be the end of that company, period.
BL.