My First bank MLIFE card was hacked about 7 days ago...............several people reported the same exact fraudulent charge. I have to wonder if the 2 events are not related

That's the whole idea... We get our $51 and then we put one of the three corrupt bureaus out of business, and the most corrupt one at that.

In fact, I'd be so happy if all three of these worthless, data mining companies went out of business that I'd break into my happy dance if they did.

There should only be one credit score and one bureau ran by the government, not some independent company or companies.... Not 20 different scoring versions with three different companies so the consumer pays for one score, but the lender pulls another with a completely different score... Just another scam.

Today is the 9th and I still get a stupid prompt to wait until 9/13 to see any information.

"We know it's possible that you were affected by the data breach, but we're going to make you wait another four days to see if you actually were affected even though we just wrote that we'd fix this problem yesterday."

What gives the idea that government is more secure? Didn't the Chinese steal the SSNs of all gov employees 2 yrs ago? Isn't IRS hit with identity theft tax refunds every year and they have no idea until the taxpayer themsleves finds out? Heck, even NSA, the most secure division - their software and classified info gets leaked all the time!

The name of the game these days is not security but monitoring. Just have to be vigilant on what's going on with your accounts. If one thing government can do is perhaps change the laws. because now if you're hit with identity theft, you alone have to spend all the effort just to get back to pre-identity theft. Or a division that helps consumers with identity theft.

Also, 3 credit bureau system probably helps consumers more than harms. Especially people here, considering for a simple fact that now they can split the 50 hard pulls over 3 places than just 1 place and spook all lenders.

But I agree that equifax is the most useless and inept of the 3 so if it was going to happen to any one of them, my guess would've been them.

Except the government system isn't for profit so I don't care as much. They're not making a profit and they don't have information they otherwise wouldn't have had anyways. The government would also let the people know they've been hacked much sooner than Equifax had done. I believe the government would be more helpful if something like this to happen under their watch when compared to Equifax.

Split the inquiries over 3 bureaus? Hardly, in certain regions of the country, one bureau is pulled more than the other two (with certain exceptions of Barclays with TU and AMEX with EX), but ALL show new accounts, which is what lenders will take into account more heavily than inquiries when looking at your credit report. Most people who frequently apply for loans have a lopsided inquiry count with at least one of the three bureaus, and almost all of the same information is shared between the three of them, which is why most have been suggesting you freeze ALL of your reports, not just your Equifax.

Me? It stinks I have to be a victim to three companies who data-mining by information without paying me, but instead, makes ME pay THEM to see my credit report. What demand is there for credit storing bureaus? None, the world would be better off without them and the lending world could still go on if one non-profit organization took over for them.

How is a private company going to issue and authenticate identity?

We have Apple ID, Google accounts, FB, Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft accounts, etc.

Are we going to replace Social Security numbers with a patchwork of different accounts from different companies?

Not even the most anti-govt, staunch libertarian has suggested that our identities be issued and managed by private enterprise.

If a new ID scheme develops to replace Social Security, it's going to come from govt, though maybe they'd consult with tech companies and data security experts to develop and deploy this new scheme.

No, that's the weird thing, I've tried a couple times, correct last name, correct SSN last 6 digits, and I'm getting #3 . I've applied for 100s of credit cards over the decades, only 1 car loan in the past (no longer open), and never a mortgage in my life.

I'm wondering if it was not their main database that was breached, but some sub-database, perhaps one with mortgages, perhaps one with current car loans, perhaps one for certain parts of the country, perhaps one which had just gotten an update for a credit in the past week (and all mine updated at other times in the month), perhaps one which had only one a clear address (mine has multiple messed up versions of my address), whatever? Because for some reason I'm definitely in their system yet they're saying I'm not affected.

Again, a third party is giving our information to another third party who obviously then can't be trusted with it. But if we want that information, WE have to pay for it. So they store our information without our permission and then we have to pay to obtain it.

Any company where you have to buy information about yourself is a scam. Not just the credit bureaus, but Ancestery.com and others are also a scam... It's just that when you use Ancestery.com, they don't have 15 different models of your family, just one.

I'm not the type to want free handouts, but credit scores and reports should be FREE and also SIMPLIFIED... IT IS YOUR INFORMATION. A person should be able to get information on what bureau the lender is pulling, what version, etc., and then they should be able to go online and get that information before submitting the application.... It shouldn't be a stupid guessing game of which bureau and report version they'll pull in which then you go out and pay $25 to obtain information that they MIGHT or MIGHT NOT pull from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion.

If anyone can't see by now why I'd like to see Equifax disappear after this, well I don't know how to explain it any other way.

The other 2 bureaus have probably been working overtime making sure they haven't been hacked... or trying to figure out the best way to say "we were hacked too..."

It may be time for our government officials to start looking into a plan to give those affected new SSNs. Yes, it's a nightmare scenerio, but now that some other nation of hackers has everything on us, we now need new banking identities. The number 1 responsibilty our government has is to protect it's citizens. This is cyber war and we have been hit.

New SSNs will get hacked again.

It's inherently not secure.

On a positive note, maybe some of us would drop below 5/24 as a result of getting new SSNs? (Yeah, I know it probably wouldn't work like that, but still.)

This is what ticks me off about (lack of) privacy:

They compile my data without my consent. They cannot safeguard it. Data breaches are commonplace now. The problem with this one is that they have all the info to commit identity theft. It's info which will not change. They could even hold onto it until the buzz dies down and free credit monitoring is over and then wreak havoc. Everyone seems to use it (or try to) as a unique identifier. I make as big a fuss as I can when asked, but for a lot of things it's impossible not to provide this info. I even have to provide it for professional licenses.

I hope there are severe consequences to Equifax and any other organization that is hacked. Credit freezes and unlocks should be free. They basically have our info held hostage.

That's what the British government uses. You pick the private company you want to identify you for government purposes. I use Digidentity because they support FiDO U2F.

British NI numbers are never used by private companies for identity checking. US SSNs aren't meant to be, and every company that does shouldn't.

So how do Brits get credit or sign up for accounts?

I know some EU countries require passports and other registration, just to get a SIM card or even check into a hotel.

Wow, total IT incompetence at Equifax.

When you do a credit freeze with them, the PINs they generate are nothing more than a date and time stamp.

https://arstechnica.com/information-...redit-reports/

I've had a freeze with them for awhile now, because of a different hack. I didn't notice but looking at it, it is a date and time stamp. I don't even know if these dummies let you change your PIN.

I froze mine this morning. The PIN was not a date/time stamp.