Pink Poogle Toy Forum

The official community of Pink Poogle Toy
Main Site
NeoDex
It is currently Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:46 am

All times are UTC




Post new topic This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 4 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: How to Protect Yourself from the World's Biggest Data Breach
PostPosted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 1:04 pm 
Way Beyond Godly
Way Beyond Godly
User avatar

Posts: 8278
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:32 pm
Location: Georgia
Gender: Female
Equifax, a U.S.-based credit reporting company, had a data breach of 140+ million people's private information (name, birth date, social security number, current and prior addresses - basically everything an identity theft would need to know to get credit in your name). This affects 2/3 American adults, but also people in Canada and Europe (and possibly elsewhere).

Clark Howard, an American consumer advocate, has created a guide to help you protect yourself. I recommend immediately taking the steps he suggests.

Also, there are new password guidelines from the experts. Basically, stick to lowercase letters, but make longer passwords using memorable phrases (in English, or in another language you speak, because why not?). They say you don't need to change them regularly, but I think it's still a good idea to do so on Neopets until they finally fix their security issues.

BlueEdit: Combined double post


Image
Blue graffitied on my signature... But it made me laugh, so it's all good!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: How to Protect Yourself from the World's Biggest Data Br
PostPosted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:28 pm 
Honorary Member
Honorary Member
User avatar

Posts: 8189
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:46 am
Location: Dodging Giant Ice-Cream Scoops
Gender: Female
Well, ironically enough, I wasn't hacked, but Mr. P was (according to the quick check). He believes this might be because he had signed in at some point to monitor our credit more closely before we bought the house. However, since we both have other non-Equifax fraud monitoring services already (one of which caught someone trying to get credit in our then-2-year-old's name), I'm not overly worried about it.

Be aware that while you can check to see if you were likely affected, I wouldn't actually enroll in the "free monitoring service" as it is ambiguous as to whether or not you'll lose the right to participate in a class action lawsuit, etc. This may or may not be true, but I'd be wary of it for now. The credit freeze/alternative monitoring would probably be the best route to go.


Image
Set by KiTeNcHeTu!
Find me at WGF, where werewolf rocks!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: How to Protect Yourself from the World's Biggest Data Br
PostPosted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 8:25 pm 
Way Beyond Godly
Way Beyond Godly
User avatar

Posts: 8278
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:32 pm
Location: Georgia
Gender: Female
Right. Clark Howard recommends NOT signing up for what Equifax offers, because a condition of signing up for it is waiving your rights to any further compensation (e.g., in a class-action lawsuit). He also says that people who have checked multiple times have gotten different results at different times as to whether their data was compromised, so he recommends assuming it was.

When my data was compromised in the big federal government breach a few years ago, they gave me free monitoring for a certain amount of time without me having to do anything. That should be required by law. Instead, a GA Congressional representative (in the district where Equifax is located), while this scandal was starting to break, sponsored a bill to protect Equifax and similar companies from liability if they experience a data breach. Talk about putting corporations over constituents! Hopefully this scandal will keep that bill from becoming law, and maybe more consumer protections will be put in place.

At this point, I figure I may as well freeze my credit since I have no plans to take any credit out anytime soon.


Image
Blue graffitied on my signature... But it made me laugh, so it's all good!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: How to Protect Yourself from the World's Biggest Data Br
PostPosted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 9:10 pm 
Administrator
Administrator
User avatar

Posts: 7702
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:53 pm
Location: Out there somewhere... or is it here?
Favorite Cheese: Mozzerella String Cheese
I've been affected a couple of times. First time was ~15 years ago when I went to re-finance - ding on my credit that was not mine. Refi did not go well. In that case, it was due to a lazy credit collection agency who could not find the right person and somehow attached it to my credit. I was very fortunate that the agency was local. I went there in person and refused to leave until they fixed it. It still took about 2 years to get my credit straightened out. I put additional restrictions on my credit at that time and signed up for a credit monitoring service. After multiple years without an issue, I dropped that service and now use AAA's free monitoring service. I get a monthly email that says "no activity".

Recently, I had one of my credit union accounts wiped out. They notified me of suspicious activity well after the crooks spent nearly $7k on nice hotels and stuff. The real kicker here is that they compromised my ATM card that I had NEVER used. Not once. The only times it had ever come out of my wallet was for ID Confirmation within the CU branch office when making a loan payment in person. Inside job? The fraud started right after a statement closing date, so I had no knowledge and would not have noticed until my next statement came. Thankfully, I got all of my money back quickly.


Image


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 4 posts ] 

All times are UTC


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group