About the latest Equifax Incompetence, Credit Freezes, and why it's all pointless

[BRiT]

So with the latest total cluelessness of Equifax and the massive data leak that went on for 4 months before being detected and nearly two months before they disclosed it to the public, they suggest that one of the steps you should take is to place a "credit freeze" on your account. However, that seems meaningless when one of the creditors allows anyone to unfreeze an account by simply using the leaked information. *face-palm*

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/experian-site-can-give-anyone-your-credit-freeze-pin/

The first hurdle for instantly revealing anyone’s freeze PIN is to provide the person’s name, address, date of birth and Social Security number (all data that has been jeopardized in breaches 100 times over — including in the recent Equifax breach — and that is broadly for sale in the cybercrime underground).

After that, one just needs to input an email address to receive the PIN and swear that the information is true and belongs to the submitter. I’m certain this warning would deter all but the bravest of identity thieves!

The final authorization check is that Experian asks you to answer four so-called “knowledge-based authentication” or KBA questions. As I have noted in countless stories published here previously, the problem with relying on KBA questions to authenticate consumers online is that so much of the information needed to successfully guess the answers to those multiple-choice questions is now indexed or exposed by search engines, social networks and third-party services online — both criminal and commercial.

 

[Grall]

Those Enron fuckers largely escaped any consequences for their criminal actions, maybe just maybe some executive heads will roll this time around, since apparently congress critters were amongst those affected by this leak. *shrug*

It shouldn't have to be this way (*cough*plutocracy*ahem*), but the rich have amassed such power unto themselves that they've practically insulated themselves.