In Regard To The Equifax Cybersecurity Incident... Important Information..
Peter over at Bayou Renaissance Man has put up a post with a lot of good information.
At the bottom there is a link to see if your info was compromised. Mine was and I signed
up for the free credit monitoring they are offering.
I also went in to my wireless account and added some more levels of authentication.
LINK HERE<<<
Based on... Might be...
ReplyDeleteThey don't know and they're asking us to provide the very information that might have been compromised in the first place.
Hard to trust them, honestly. Especially when you see all the bloody scripts running on that page!
I actually think they want more information than what I originally provided. Sounds very fishy. Just give me the link where I can sue them for all the trouble.
ReplyDeleteIf you sign up for the "free" credit monitoring they offer, you're signing away your rights to sue or receive damages. Read the terms of service.
ReplyDeleteThanks. That was pointed out. I'm wondering now as to whether or not they are telling everyone that logs in that they were exposed to get them to sign up. I tried but haven't received the confirmation email. I guess more research is due. There is a fair amount of chatter as to how bad this breach is.
DeleteI've read plenty that says these clowns are using the "bad" situation to market more services. I wouldn't pay them anything. If anything, they need to be providing services completely "gratis."
ReplyDeleteHere is some info I picked up on Imgur:
Transunion already tried to pull the switcheroo on people trying to freeze their credit and get them to buy their crap identity protection product. Lifelock just dropped at least mid-six figures on an extra marketing run this week, all so they can charge you $10-$50 a month for something you can do yourself.
If you'd rather just keep an eye on your credit instead of freezing it and see your credit score, a Credit Sesame account - http://smartmoneyresources.net/tracking-credit-score-changes - should do the trick for free. I'd normally suggest Credit Karma but their alert system is sub-par at best.
Freezing your credit with all three bureaus costs anywhere between $10-25 total depending on your state. Equifax is letting you freeze your credit with them for free no matter where you live, but that company is so deep in the shit right now I wouldn't trust them with any information about me at all. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs explains how to pay the fee and how to freeze your credit. If you've never had your personal information used in the past, they'll sometimes charge you a fee just to lift it if you're applying for a loan, credit card, apartment, etc.
I think in due time we'll find out who the culprits are, place your bets below on your favorite nation-state/hacking group/disgruntled employee who ends up being identified as the responsible party by the FTC.
Info provided by https://imgur.com/user/heresjohhhhny
I entered 2 bogus names and SSNs, even just 123456, and both times the Equifax site said my info may have been compromised. I think it is b.s.
ReplyDeleteI posted this already, but I'm expanding it.
ReplyDelete1) The problem with using the Equifax web verification site is that it gives different results, depending on whether you are using a mobile phone, IE, or another browser, for the same information. Also, it reports you're exposed if you enter a random number like '123456', and with it asking for the last 6 numbers of the SSN along with your birthday, identity thief would have what's necessary to steal your identity. Note that the Equifax site generates a 'Phishing warning' from Google, although whether it is or not is unproven.
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2) As other people have noted, by signing up with Equifax credit monitoring, you give up your right to sue, and agree to binding arbitration. In addition, it appears that signing up for the "free" monitoring is a come-on (the first taste is free) to a monthly subscription monitoring.
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3) Security researcher Brian Krebs has several postings on this, and states that the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to "freeze" your credit & only "unfreeze" it when you require it for business. Doing this prevents the problem of "after the fact" notification when someone has used your ID in a fraudulent manner.
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