Items tagged with equifax
The day of reckoning has come for Equifax for a massive data breach two years ago, but for consumers hoping for more than a slap on a wrist, prepare yourself for disappointed. Equifax's penalty for failing to secure private information belonging to around 147 million Americans is a fine totaling at least $575 million, and potentially up to $700 million, the Federal Trade Commission announced today. Sure, that is a staggering amount of money when viewed in a vacuum. However, to put that into perspective, it was recently reported that the FTC hammered Facebook with a $5 billion fine as a part of a settlement over numerous privacy mishaps. Many also view that as a slap on the wrist, considering...
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Last year, a hacker group was able to penetrate credit reporting agency Equifax and make off with information, including the social security numbers, of 143 million Americans. Only a few days after the hack, a ransom demand for the return of the information was made to the tune of $2.6 million in bitcoin via the dark web. Now it is believed that the hackers are also believed to have made off with other personal data about Americans including tax ID numbers and driver's license details. Other data leaked in the hack that we already knew about included names, birthdates, social security numbers, home addresses and driver's license numbers. Reports are now indicating that the hack exposed more data...
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Come on, Equifax, you're killing us here. We were already positively dumbfounded when Equifax reported that a security breach resulted in the personal information of over 140 million Americans -- including social security numbers – has been stolen via a website security vulnerability. What was even more unfathomable is that the attack went undetected for months, and that it took a few more months for Equifax to disclose the magnitude of the breach. Now we're learning that Equifax has done it again. Just when we thought we couldn’t think any less of the company, Randy Abrams, an independent security analyst, discovered that the Equifax website has been hacked again. When visiting the Equifax website...
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There are some things you just should not do. Stick your tongue out and lick a metal pole during a freezing day in winter (or anytime, really), is one of them. Putting ketchup on eggs is another (oh you sick puppies!). But perhaps most of all, you should not use lax security practices, especially when in possession of millions of Social Security numbers. Oops, it looks like Equifax may have failed that last one by using an easy-to-guess password. Equifax last week disclosed what some are considering to be the worst security breach ever, not because of the sheer number of people affected—143 million Americans—but because of the information coughed up. We are talking names, addresses, Social Security...
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Equifax is still trying to dig its way out from under the bad press and an angry public after a hack of its database gave access to personal information on 143 million Americans. Equifax offered those affected by the security breach the ability to lock their credit reports to prevent the stolen information leaked in the hack from being used to open new credit in their names. However, things just keep going from bad to worse for Equifax (and everyone in general). Equifax used a PIN that "protected" each user's credit report to prevent the information from being used, but the PINs were reportedly generated in such a way that they were left vulnerable to brute force hacking. Customers have found...
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Equifax was hacked surfaced and 143 million Americans have potentially had their personal information stolen. What many have been wondering is what exactly do the hackers plan to do with all that stolen data. A report making the rounds claims that the hackers want a massive ransom from Equifax to return the data. Hackers made the ransom demand on an unnamed Darkweb site stating that they would delete the data if they receive a ransom payment of 600 BTC, which would be worth about $2.6 million at current valuation. The value of Bitcoin is at one of its highest points ever right now, having jumped past $4,000 for the first time in mid-August...
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There continues to be mass fallout from the enormous “cybersecurity incident” that struck Equifax back in mid-May (but wasn't discovered until late July). Equifax waited until yesterday to inform the world that the sensitive personal information of 143 million Americans had been exposed due to a website breach. While there have been larger hacks that have taken place in recent years, none contained such critical information like names, birthdates and social security numbers; which could be a virtual goldmine for those looking to sell this information on the black market. In some instances, even drivers license numbers and credit card numbers were obtained. Equifax has some provisions in...
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This could be the mother of all cyberattacks; Equifax just announced that it experienced a "cybersecurity incident" that occurred between mid-May of this year through late July. During that time, malicious parties were able to gain access to some of its online databases courtesy of a website vulnerability. As a result, over 143 million -- yes, MILLION -- U.S. consumers are affected by the data breach. We're not just talking about names and birth dates (yes, those were included), but also Social Security numbers. In some cases, even driver license numbers were obtained by the hackers. And that's not all; dispute documents with "personal identifying information" of 182,000 customers was accessed...
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