Equifax data breach

www.usatoday.com...

Been wanting to make a thread on this for two days now, but I couldn't decide on where to put it. This should do.

So the tl;dr of this, is that Equifax had improper data security in place, someone figured that out, and breached their servers. They walked away with the credit/personal information of 160 million Americans, 50% of the population.

Have we reached the point yet where we as a society need to realize that information is being weaponized, and that it cannot be kept secure?

Do we blame the IT who were incompetent? Blame the management that OK'ed it all? Maybe we blame the CEO and CIO who sold their shares over the past 2 months, before announcing this happened back in June.

Thoughts? Blame? Fixes?

Seems their head of data security has a college degree in music and liberal arts.

Highly qualified.

Equifax hired a music major as chief security officer and she has just retired

Fix: Send all Republican cultists to an small remote island so that they can no longer strip protections on the back of consumers.

originally posted by: Aazadan
www.usatoday.com...

Been wanting to make a thread on this for two days now, but I couldn't decide on where to put it. This should do.

So the tl;dr of this, is that Equifax had improper data security in place, someone figured that out, and breached their servers. They walked away with the credit/personal information of 160 million Americans, 50% of the population.

Have we reached the point yet where we as a society need to realize that information is being weaponized, and that it cannot be kept secure?

Do we blame the IT who were incompetent? Blame the management that OK'ed it all? Maybe we blame the CEO and CIO who sold their shares over the past 2 months, before announcing this happened back in June.

Thoughts? Blame? Fixes?

I think the fix would be to incorporate Blockchain technology to our credit reporting systems. At least it couldn't be hacked then.

Has Mao allowed you out of your box again? Go back to your Chinese hacker group.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Seems their head of data security has a college degree in music and liberal arts.

Highly qualified.

Equifax hired a music major as chief security officer and she has just retired

originally posted by: xuenchen
Seems their head of data security has a college degree in music and liberal arts.

Highly qualified.

Equifax hired a music major as chief security officer and she has just retired

There's more to it than that, but since you brought it up. IT is not a degree based field, it's a certification based one. Having a degree doesn't really mean much here. What does mean a lot is that the people who were making these decisions lacked the necessary certifications and failed. Is that the fault of the school though, or the fault of an employer who just sees IT as a cost center and wants to solve the problem in the lowest cost manner possible?

originally posted by: bananashooter
I think the fix would be to incorporate Blockchain technology to our credit reporting systems. At least it couldn't be hacked then.

The worst case scenario in a blockchain failure is really, really, bad. It also doesn't address the security concerns that are present.

How about ending the welfare state, shrinking the government and lowering taxes and controlling our borders then people wouldn't have to be so dependent to credit and loan systems in the first place, end socialism!. reply to: SeekingAlpha

Please explain. I don't get what you mean by failure.a reply to: Aazadan

originally posted by: bananashooter
Please explain. I don't get what you mean by failure.a reply to: Aazadan

Blockchain relies on a majority rule system. If you can either compromise 51% of the chain, or provide 51% of the computational power yourself (bot nets can in theory do this today, quantum computers WILL do it tomorrow) you can dictate majority rule, and determine which conflicting data becomes trusted. In essence, it allows the ability to rewrite the entire blockchain making all data invalid.

In the case of storing credit on a blockchain. This would have the effect of ending the credit market overnight.

Edit: Security concerns have to do with proving identity. We need a new form of ID (and I don't mean a fancy ID card) to do that. But actual 2 factor authentication based on the idea of shared secrets. And none of that even gets into the fact that these companies stole your information, because you presumably didn't consent to give them eyes on all your purchases.

originally posted by: bananashooter
How about ending the welfare state, shrinking the government and lowering taxes and controlling our borders then people wouldn't have to be so dependent to credit and loan systems in the first place, end socialism!. reply to: SeekingAlpha

you believe america is socialist, jesus wept.
karl marx would like a word.

Well I live in California so it's hard not to see it that way. a reply to: growler

Well if that's the case why doesn't this affect the cryptocurrency market? Plus I have even herd Blockchain is in parts of the stock market already, and moving into the health care sector.a reply to: Aazadan

since credit agencies can`t keep our personal private info secure we should be allowed to opt out of allowing them to have our personal private info.

Yes, it costs ten bucks a service, so 30 bucks. Which is complete BS.a reply to: Tardacus

a reply to: Aazadan

It bugs me that I can't even find out if mine or my husband's info was swiped. All they can tell me is it "may have been affected."

Not really on topic, but I needed to get that off my chest.

Equifax needs to pay dearly for their negligence.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

A class action lawsuit would be "Music" to anyone's ears.

Just thinking if Equifax can be hacked which guess I thought credit bureaus would have the Ultimate Security, then are any of the others safe either?

The other two of the big three Trans Union, Experian??

The latest and greatest advertising constantly Credit Karma, Credit Sesame??

And what if LifeLock where some pay monthly fees is hacked???

Nothing is private, or secure anymore…

a reply to: Aazadan

Nothing was ever secure at any point. If you're looking for a conspiracy, it's one that says that anything transmitted by computer is/was 'safe'. The only way information is ever lost is because it was never considered important enough to be saved in the first place. People freely give information via PC like it's their personal diary that no one else can see, which is like asking a live microphone to "just keep it between you and me". There is no 'safe' online, only the battle between those who are employed to protect information against those who are unemployed interested in getting it. A lock on your house may keep out a local prankster, but a skilled thief always knows how to get in. Have heart though, just don't do anything important or interesting by computer, and you're good to go.

originally posted by: bananashooter
Well if that's the case why doesn't this affect the cryptocurrency market? Plus I have even herd Blockchain is in parts of the stock market already, and moving into the health care sector.

It does. They're assuming it's going to remain highly unlikely for 50.01% of the computational power to fall under one entity though.