I think "honest corporations" is close to an oxymoron, but that's another story.

I own a corporation. What are you implying?

Edit: two corporations.

 

One thing not mentioned about this Equifax security breach is the increasing role of foreign tech workers (mostly from India and Pakistan on H1-B visas) who have the know how to hack the security features in large networks.

Many of the multinational business that are getting hit with security breaches are also lobbying congress for more H1-B visas to allow them to hire more foreign workers:

https://www.fwd.us/

I bet you a cookie to a donut that Equifax is part of this organization.

 

Hi,

I have given this some thought and decided there is a chance that this was no random hack but instead a purposeful move in order to have more of a chance to gain new customers by implanting one of the worst fears in them, and that is that their credit will be ruined if they dont sign up for regular credit 'watches' on their site.
This bothers me and i have seen something similar before. The company causes a problem for the customer, the customer must contact the company, the company gains the chance to sell something more to the user, then easily fixes the problem although they may make it look like it was a very hard problem to solve.
Even if this isnt the case it could be and so the punishment should be severe. This is a problem that is too critical to life for many people.

 

I have given this some thought and decided there is a chance that this was no random hack but instead a purposeful move in order to have more of a chance to gain new customers by implanting one of the worst fears in them, and that is that their credit will be ruined if they dont sign up for regular credit 'watches' on their site.

Lose the tin foil hat. Occum's Razor applies here.

 

Hi,

I have given this some thought and decided there is a chance that this was no random hack but instead a purposeful move in order to have more of a chance to gain new customers by implanting one of the worst fears in them, and that is that their credit will be ruined if they dont sign up for regular credit 'watches' on their site.
This bothers me and i have seen something similar before. The company causes a problem for the customer, the customer must contact the company, the company gains the chance to sell something more to the user, then easily fixes the problem although they may make it look like it was a very hard problem to solve.
Even if this isnt the case it could be and so the punishment should be severe. This is a problem that is too critical to life for many people.

Reminds me of a case in the 1980s where the upholstery contractor that was hired to repair ripped seat cushions on BART trains was convicted of conspiracy and felony vandalism for hiring punks to slash 100s of seat cushions!!!

 

The tip-off is the same signature slash patterns reoccured regularly. The slash patterns identified the slashers to the upholsstery contractor knew to whom the commission was to be paid. Not very creative.

 

I own a corporation. What are you implying?

Edit: two corporations.

I'm saying that a lot of corporations are less than totally ethical in their operation. (Wells Fargo Bank is just the latest example, and I think you can just about throw a dart anywhere on Wall Street and hit a not so ethical financial firm. I love that they are fighting the new rule that financial planners are required to put their customer's interest above theirs. How could the regulators even think of imposing such an onerous rule . )
It's a not unexpected result of running a company where profit is the sole goal for its operation.
I'm not saying there's a better way to run a corporation, I'm saying that's why we need those "onerous" rules, to temper the unethical excesses of such a system.

Of course I have no personal knowledge of how you run your corporations so can't comment on that.

 

Lose the tin foil hat. Occum's Razor applies here.

Hi,

So you are comparing an unethical company with an alien invasion or something? How does the foil hat relate to ethics?
BTW, a Faraday cage could help prevent some electronics from blowing out during an EMP attack.

So i think you mean Occam's Razor *might* apply.

If i had not seen this kind of sneaky marketing before i would not think something unethical could be going on.

 

I love that they are fighting the new rule that financial planners are required to put their customer's interest above theirs. How could the regulators even think of imposing such an onerous rule .

That regulation was supposed to go into effect earlier this year. Trump revoked it by executive order and now financial advisers are free to continue to place their interests before those of their clients and are free from being required to disclose conflicts of interest.

 

Reminds me of a case in the 1980s where the upholstery contractor that was hired to repair ripped seat cushions on BART trains was convicted of conspiracy and felony vandalism for hiring punks to slash 100s of seat cushions!!!

Hi,

Oh wow that's even more direct and more stupid.

What i was suggesting is that they dont have to do telemarketing, they get the customer to call on THEM at which time they make their sales pitch. It's happening right now. Their web site is in a large part marketing.

 

Yes, we've all (most of the country anyway) just been screwed by Equifax's lack of proper encryption of our critical personal data.

They can start by making it illegal to use offshore call centers for financial institutions. Not saying that offshore employees are any less ethical or prudent than onshore employees but the fact that someone can easily get their hands on you goes a long way to keeping you honest.

 

They can start by making it illegal to use offshore call centers for financial institutions. Not saying that offshore employees are any less ethical or prudent than onshore employees but the fact that someone can easily get their hands on you goes a long way to keeping you honest.

See post # 22.

That tells most of the story why (and how) this happened and how it will keep happening.

 

I'm saying that's why we need those "onerous" rules, to temper the unethical excesses of such a system.

Sarbanes-Oxley was supposed to be exactly that for the financial industry (you mention Wells-Fargo). All it did was solidify the market position of the big national banks (who could afford the cost of compliance) and destroyed small savings and loans and local banks.

 

You can freeze/ unfreeze your credit reporting at the following links:

https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html#content-01
https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp

This will prevent the opening of new accounts in your name.

Equifax is doing the freeze for free, although I noticed this after I signed up for TrustedID. I'm not sure you can do the freeze for free without that.

I suppose the other two are still charging $10 to do the freeze. The Illinois attorney general, and probably other states, is pushing for free freezes from all 3.

 

Sarbanes-Oxley was supposed to be exactly that for the financial industry (you mention Wells-Fargo). All it did was solidify the market position of the big national banks (who could afford the cost of compliance) and destroyed small savings and loans and local banks.

I'm not convinced I can categorize that as another example of my Law of Unintended Consequences. I suspect it was exactly the intent. It wasn't part of the PR package, but the result was easily predictable so it's hard to believe it was unintended.

 

Equifax is doing the freeze for free, although I noticed this after I signed up for TrustedID. I'm not sure you can do the freeze for free without that.

I suppose the other two are still charging $10 to do the freeze. The Illinois attorney general, and probably other states, is pushing for free freezes from all 3.

If you can get to their site! It just spins for now. And I will bet they will charge you up the you know what when you go to unlock it.

 

If you can get to their site! It just spins for now. And I will bet they will charge you up the you know what when you go to unlock it.

Finally got in. I got the following. With the recent issues with looks awfully suspicious. I don't know why they would take you to a different domain like that. This is a classic phishing scam. Hack the home page and take the user to your own site.

 

Apparently it was Apache Struts CVE-2017-5638 that was reported back in March 2017. How in the hell don't you upgrade your servers????

The bigger question is how do people keep finding these vulnerabilities?

 

So does anyone know if https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/ is a legit site?

 

So does anyone know if https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/ is a legit site?

I guess I don't know, but I assumed it was OK and went ahead to sign up for TrustedID (which I later heard is next to useless) and to lock my Equifax file (which was the recommended way to protect your credit).