Security Breach at Equifax May Affect 143 Million

[engine]

It seems that around 143 million U.S., U.K., and Canadian records at Equifax were accessed between May and July this year. There could be Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses stolen.

Malicious hackers won access to its systems by exploiting a "website application vulnerability", it said but provided no further details.

The hackers accessed credit card numbers for about 209,000 consumers, among other information. Security Breach at Equifax May Affect 143 Million [bbc.co.uk]

[Mark_A]

Hmm. I was thinking somewhat smugly that this does not affect me because I have never had an account with Equifax but if course they could have generated a page/report on me and it could have been stolen in this theft.

Do I need to know? and what can I do anyhow if data on me was stolen?

[Mark_A]

And just what could Equifax have expected where fines are concerned had they had this breach after the introduction of the GDPR which stipulates 4% of global turnover as fines for the most serious data breaches?

[topr8]

>>Besides, won't the bad guys pick on far more interesting, higher net worth people than one nearly-poor dude like me?

no not really, as it is so easy to get rather a lot of credit even if you are a nearly-poor dude.

[engine]

The CEO, Richard Smith, has now stepped down.
[zdnet.com...]

@Mark_A
We all need to be more aware of identity theft, even if you're not on that database. Anything out of the ordinary, even if we weren't on this database, is a potential attempt. It's far safer for thieves to steal from people online as they are unlikely to suffer any violence from a virtual break in, and are often beyond the reach of the law in the local jurisdiction.
I worry about GDPR's impact because it's got to be proven for the fines to be levied. In this instance, it appears to have been offshore, so won't have any control over the theft, even if some in Europe may be impacted.

@chewy
Determined miners will keep plugging away until they get enough to make a breakthrough, and it'll often come from a weak link.

[engine]

It seems Equifax has now said it'll open a new service to allow consumers to lock and unlock their credit information on Equifax's systems. It's making the point it'll be free, "for life."
[bloomberg.com...]

I wonder how valuable this'll be for consumers? What about the other agencies? I guess I don't know enough about how it works amongst the agencies.

Most importantly, will people trust this?