I mean, whatever works best though, right?
If this does not result in Equifax being sued and prosecuted out of existence there’s no justice in this world.
OK, I did that in the spring when I stupidly lost a USB drive around tax time, as some of you all may recall because I posted about it.
Now the question is, with this breach, presumably the hackers got the unlock PINs of people who froze their credit info, along with everything else, right?
There is no sure way to tell what was or was not gotten by hackers (unless someone posts it online in clear) because a) Equifax probably isn’t really sure themselves, b) they wouldn’t tell you the truth even if they were sure, and c) who knows what the people who obtained the data did with it, if anything.
So this vague notion that credit data associated with these SSNs may have been taken is probably all you can rely on until someone starts trying to take out loans in your name or reset your bank passwords using your SSN as a key or whatever.
Yeah, we basically don’t know if they got the unlock PINs or not.
Fuck. That would be the worst. I’ve gotta see if my CU has two-factor authentication or something.
It’s a danger, but don’t get too too frantic about it. It’s a lot of work to try and exploit any single account, and there’s all these millions of them to get lost in. Even if the hackers resold large blocks of the data, odds are the vast majority of people won’t ever see any consequences at all. It’s just another thing to be wary of.
That said, yeah, two-factor for any account that is connected to money or to anything you really care about.
Yes, exactly. Your personally identifiable info was already out in the open market before this latest hack. The only reason you haven’t been screwed is simply luck of the draw. All we can do is try not to be low-hanging fruit.
His article seems to have some good advice.
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/
Reposting:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-embrace-the-security-freeze/
Thanks Stusser
Are any of you married people putting in a freeze for you and your partner or is it a single freeze per-couple kind of thing? How does a credit freeze work if you’re married? Or I guess the thing I really want to know is, how much risk is it to have a freeze for only one partner? When we apply for credit, we always list one another on the forms. But I’d guess that if you’re a criminal, you enter the information that’s most likely to get you a score, so maybe they do it differently.
I guess I could just get two, but that might mean having to unfreeze multiple accounts, multiple pins, which might get confusing. Probably the ID theft criminals have handy apps that deal with this sort of thing, but I’m just a regular guy, so I have nothing to help me. Nothing, that is, except my internet connection and you, Quarter-to-three-hive mind.
Please advise. :)
You both need it. This is a trivial investment in time and money that could save you tremendous amounts of both in the future. Don’t be lazy.
Just tried a credit freeze at all 3 main agencies. Ironically, Equifax is the only one that was (a) free, and (b) worked.
Experian choked after I tried paying the $10 and said I had to mail everything in.
Transunion choked right up front and said the site was malfunctioning.
This probably didn’t help …
Good advice from the NYT. But yeah, that’s probably why their sites borked. Don’t forget Innovis. And mail in those docs.
Yeah. I froze at Equifax, Transunion and Innovis. Have to mail in paperwork to Experion.
I had zero trouble yesterday. Same for my wife. Maybe the number of people trying is increasing?
With that NYT story, I would assume so yeah.
On a side note, man, Equifax is fucking inept.
I hate this shit so much. “We’re going to make a profile of you! And your highly sensitive data! Then we’re going to sell it to people, and charge you to make us stop. Also, people can steal it.”
Interesting, could only freeze Innovis. Equifax and Experian state that I need to send information via mail, Trans Union site craps out. This is from PA.
Since that failed, I setup a fraud alert on my accounts, which only lasts for 3 months. Took the opportunity to review everything, and it looks ok, no funny loans or credit cards tied to me atm.