{"id":25370,"date":"2017-09-08T07:06:38","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T12:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=25370"},"modified":"2017-09-08T07:06:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T12:06:38","slug":"worst-us-consumer-data-hack-ever-equifax-confesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=25370","title":{"rendered":"Worst US Consumer Data Hack Ever? Equifax Confesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Worst US Consumer Data Hack Ever? Equifax Confesses<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
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Your data was likely stolen. Here\u2019s what you can do to protect yourself even after the hack, and Equifax doesn\u2019t want you to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Equifax, as a consumer credit bureau, collects financial, credit, and other data on every US consumer. It has names, birth dates, social security numbers, driver\u2019s license numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, mortgage data, and payment history data, including to utilities, wireless service providers, and the like. It collects data on bank balances, loan balances, credit card balances, credit card purchases, and myriad personal details. It has massive digital dossiers on every consumer in the US and in some other countries. And it sells this data to other companies, such as banks, credit card companies, car dealerships, retailers, and others, as a routine part of its business model. That\u2019s how it makes money.<\/p>\n

But when someone breaks in and steals this data without paying Equifax for it, well, that\u2019s a huge deal. And it is.<\/p>\n

Turns out, Equifax got hacked \u2013 um, no, not today. Today it disclosed<\/a> that it had discovered on July 29 \u2013 six weeks ago \u2013 that it had been hacked sometime between \u201cmid-May through July,\u201d and that key data on 143 million US consumers was stolen. There was no need to notify consumers right away. They\u2019re screwed anyway. But it gave executives enough time to sell 2 million shares<\/a> between the discovery of the hack and today, when they crashed 13% in late trading.<\/p>\n

Given the quantity and sensitivity of the stolen data, it may well be the biggest and worst breach in US history.<\/p>\n

That stolen data \u201cprimarily includes\u201d:<\/p>\n