Tuesday, 3 October 2017 UPDATED / Thursday, 7 September 2017, New York, NY - Equifax credit reporting agency today disclosed that on 29 July 2017 Equifax discovered that from mid-May through July 2017 an Equifax website application "weak point" was exploited in a cyberattack data breach that compromised 143 million U.S. consumers' Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and some driver's license and other sensitive information leaving it for months vulnerable to hackers. Hackers were able to steal credit card numbers of 209,000 consumers. Dispute document personal information of 182,000 consumers was taken as well. Equifax disclosed also some personal information of an unspecified number of Canadian and British residents was stolen.
The bad faith of Equifax is amply demonstrated several times over including as reported by NBC news that the same day Equifax finally publicly disclosed the massive consumer data breach on 7 September 2017 that it had learned of more than five weeks before on 29 July 2017 that Equifax was lobbying on Capitol Hill for a reduction in the already lax regulation of credit reporting agencies and their liability in cases of security breaches exposing consumer financial and other sensitive data.
Equifax said it has found no evidence of unauthorized activity on its main consumer or commercial credit reporting databases. The company website says that worldwide it has data on more than 820 million consumers and 91 million businesses and information on employees from more than 7,100 businesses. Equifax says in addition to reporting the breach to law enforcement with the F.B.I. now investigating Equifax also has hired an unidentified cybersecurity firm to determine the "scale of the invasion" which investigation it expects to be complete "within the next few weeks." Equifax will pay for one year free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for all U.S. consumers who request it also with additional data risk information at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com.
The third link below is the New York Times article reporting the Equifax data breach with preliminary information including the website above. The fourth link below is Consumer Reports free advice on what every consumer should do when visiting the website. The fifth link below reports the New York Attorney General (AG) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concerns against using the Equifax site as it requires too much information and the fine print may waive consumer rights to sue Equifax. In the sixth link below Equifax responds that those fine print terms do no apply in this help site case but former NJ Deputy AG says do not take Equifax marketing department advice for this as contract terms control. At the seventh link below the more recent New York Times article provides updated directions accounting for further developments at Equifax in response to the breach as to what steps one should take now to protect credit and personal information as best as even if imperfectly possible against misuse. The eighth link below details concerns about security of the PIN provided to unfreeze credit reports after one freezes them. The ninth link sets out how to freeze credit reports at each major agency.
Unfortunately it appears that some Equifax executives despite its own catastrophic recklessness in not protecting data which consumers did not willingly provide to Equifax in the the first place nor request it to store may have exercised Equifax stock options and sold before the breach announcement was made public in addition to the Equifax "help" website requesting excessive information with fine print at least initially until overwhelming public outcry requiring consumers to waive the legal right to sue Equifax. Readers can go to the tenth link below for further information about developments related to officials' responses to the Equifax breach including Senate Banking Committee Democratic U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp's assertion that if executives who exercised options and sold Equifax stock did so with knowledge of the breach before the public that "somebody needs to go to jail."
The eleventh link below is a further New York Times report that Equifax will provide free credit freezes on Equifax when requested within thirty (30) days (since reported to be free for Equifax freezes when requested by 21 November 2017) although the Times has not had all its questions and requests to Equifax as well as TransUnion and Experian answered to its satisfaction. At link twelve three major questions about the degree of inadequacy of Experian computer security are posed in the Washington Post's next article below although no further instructions are provided to protect the security of one's information.
The Washington Post's next article at link thirteen below has all information for a chatbot that provides one's personal small claims court lawsuit papers free which filing should not preclude also joining a class action suit. Equifax seemingly has tried to deflect responsibility for apparent negligence or recklessness in not having sufficiently secured such highly sensitive information by referencing a vulnerability in a "website application". That reference by Equifax is to a vulnerability in its Apache security software which Apache rebuffed stating it identified the vulnerability and immediately provided a patch in March 2017 months before the Equifax breach began which Equifax had failed to install. A PBS article with credit/ID expert advice video is at link thirteen below.
CFPB UPDATE Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray has announced he is resigning from his five-year term early. The CFPB has developed over the past seven years into an agency with a robust enforcement division. The CFPB has forced the biggest banks in the country to return over $12 billion directly to families the banks cheated. The CFPB hotline which remains in operation has handled over 1 million telephone complaints including on behalf of families against Wells Fargo Bank for its huge transgressions as well as serving as a major advocate of consumers with complaints against Equifax and others such as debt collectors.
The CFPB has been under constant attack by the GOP Congress for its role as the one consumer protection agency left standing with Director Cordray called ceaselessly before GOP-controlled congressional committees to be subjected to relentless harassment by GOP congress members outraged that there is any federal entity left standing that actually represents the interests of the American people rather than those strongly favored by the GOP because they own it and bought all its members their "elected" seats such as predatory payday, student loan, bank, financial "services", pre-paid and other credit card issuer lenders and other such consumer predators.
The GOP congress earlier reversed a CFPB rule with phony Christian Mike "Serial Liar" Pence ('lil Mike you just cannot be both at once) breaking a 50-50 Senate tie vote that would have forbid predatory financial institutions from forcing consumers to "agree" to be subjected to industry-biased arbitration and forced to give up their constitutional right to a trial by jury in a court of law. The GOP now is salivating at the opportunity for President Trump to appoint an official to head the CFPB who can gut its work protecting consumers a further reminder link below that every day Trump and the GOP are in power is another day piling on giant setbacks for the American people to whom to whom the Trump GOP lie every day. Readers interested in Director Cordray's early departure this month from the CFPB can go to the first link below.
UPDATES Trump attempts in Trump WH Thanksgiving weekend night "news dump" to name Trump #1 anti-consumer WH "Trillion Dollar Deficit" Budget Director Mulvaney interim CFPB "Swamp King" under authority Trump did not have the interim position under statute going to CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English whom Cordray named before his early departure who under statute serves until a Senate confirmation of a new CFPB Director. Not to be encumbered by the law the Trump WH nevertheless named sleaze Mulvaney to the interim position leaving the CFPB with apparent dueling heads. CFPB Deputy Director English supported by the Dodd-Frank law creating the CFPB sued in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia for a temporary restraining order to block Trump's pick WH GOP hack uncredentialed OMB fraudster head avowed CFPB consumer enemy #1 Mulvaney the day before she was to take over the CFPB as interim Director.
Newly Trump appointed Federal District Court Judge Timothy Kelly (surprise!) ruled in Trump's favor on the TRO allowing WH OMB Head (who as no advanced economics credentials) Mick Mulvaney also temporarily to head the CFPB which GOP hack Mulvaney has vowed to destroy because of his falsely espoused lie that it has imposed such great burdens on fine citizen banks such as criminal bank Wells Fargo and longtime criminal Bank of America. Readers interested in more information on the above updates can go to the first unnumbered first five links directly below.
UPDATE to 5 February 2018 Anti-Consumer Consumer Financial Protection Bureau GOP Trump hack acting interim head Mick Mulvaney struck a further blow in his continuing assault on consumers gutting the CFPB investigation of Equifax, Inc. declining help from three U.S. agencies specializing in financial matters in cancelling on-site Equifax investigation and laying the groundwork for further disaster from that and other credit reporting agencies after Equifax had allowed extensive financial information of 143 million consumers to be accessed through a data breach after Equifax failed for several months after it was provided to install a patch for a vulnerability in its security software. As a consequence of the incident Equifax CEO Rogers resigned his position and took full blame in congressional testimony.
Mulvaney in his undistinguished career as a Trump GOP hack confirmed by 51-49 the barest of Senate votes previously was the head of the White House OMB who by ineptitude or more likely intentionally in line with Trump orthodoxy vigorously defended wildly inaccurate budget predictions based entirely on political expedience unrelated to reality. Mr. Mulvaney literally forced himself into the open acting interim head position of the CFPB by getting to the open vacated office earliest in the morning contrary to a clear reading of the law (currently still the subject of a dispute) so he could immediately sabotage its operations first forbidding employees from sending out any money in the CFPB's possession for at least a month despite it belonging to and being expected by consumers paid by private entities to compensate them for having been wronged. Mulvaney requested zero dollars for the CFPB's annual budget apparently like his sponsor Trump unconcerned about fulfilling implicit obligations when charged with the duties set out under duly enacted law thereby ignoring the democratic will of the American people in violation of one's oath to the Constitution. Readers interested in more information about Mulvaney's gut of the CFPB Equifax investigation can go to one above the final link below.
UPDATE to 1 March 2018 Equifax continued its peculiar strategy which will hopefully speed its paying out policy limits before suffering death by a thousand cuts but hopefully not before it pays out a fortune in consumer remedies including for credit locks, credit freezes, credit monitoring, credit repair and consumer damages in private and class actions including punitive damages plus wiping out all its executives and board of directors individually for their reckless and intentional unlawful misdeeds before Equifax suffers its well-earned death pulling down the whole sleezy wretched privacy invading totally incompetent "credit reporting service" industry now admitting it has known all along that it exposed another 2.4 million now totaling 147.9 million (about half) of all Americans most private and personal identification information and related data to every hacker and cyberthief who can use it or sell it on the dark web at any point for the rest of consumers' lives (unless they change their names, birthdates, social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and so on).
Interested readers can go to the final link below for this most recent Equifax disclosure but are advised that all intervening Equifax developments of available remedies from and/or against Equifax as well as any related information is not covered as the links following date from early after the incident was made public so interested readers are urged to follow links or do further searches to insure they have comprehensive information about all pertinent intervening Equifax breach reporting, updates, additional consumer remedies and so on without limitation as there really is no way to make Equifax and its officers and directors hurt enough for the harm they have caused American consumers but at least we can try.
UPDATE to 7 March 2018 Consumer enemy #1 "Swamp King" Mick Mulvaney the same laughably bogus OMB head making totally BS economic forecasts from the White House with no training of merit whatsoever now guts CFPB to the delight of industry Trump government "acting in the corporate interest" in payday payoff ends all enforcement actions by CFPB with all "modesty and humility". Funny guy loser demonstrates zero integrity approach to federal government. Readers interested in more information can go to link 17 below.
UPDATE to 27 April 2018 Tea Party co-founder publishes New York Times op-ed excoriating Trump "King of the Swamp" admitted bribe-taker CFPB destroyer and "Trillion Dollar Deficit" OMB man consumer enemy #1 scum "Prick" Mick Mulvaney poster child for exploiting endemic Trump administration corruption and calls on states to use U.S. Constitution article V amendments to take power away from hopelessly corrupt federal government and give it to the states at link immediately below.
o https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/05/08/trump-thanks-federal-employees-with-143-5-billion-in-retirement-cuts/? Mulvaney OMB CFPB Enemy Of The People #1 Has OPM Head Pon Send Congress A $143.5 Billion Federal Worker Wages Now Retirement Later Rip-Off Plan For "Public Service Recognition Week"
o https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/opinion/mick-mulvaney-trump-swamp.html Tea Party co-founder uses swamp scum OMB "trillion dollar deficit" CFPB criminal Mulvaney as example why to take power away from feds
o https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/25/1759789/-Mick-Mulvaney-admits-to-taking-bribes-and-solicits-additional-bribes-while-destroying-CFPB Mulvaney Takes Bribes Solicits More From Bankers Destroys CFPB
o https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-sandberg-privacy/facebook-to-hand-privacy-controls-to-users-ahead-of-eu-law-idUSKBN1FC1Q6 Facebook Others EU Privacy Breach Fine Greater 4% Annual Turnover / $24.5 Million
o https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-cfpb/u-s-court-backs-trump-in-battle-over-interim-consumer-watchdog-head-idUSKBN1DS1KU?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29 Trump Judge Kelly Rules In His Favor CFPB TRO
o https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/business/trump-cfpb-consumer-agency.html English v. Trump CFPB Suit
o https://theintercept.com/2017/11/24/richard-cordray-sets-up-titanic-struggle-for-control-of-the-consumer-protection-bureau-with-last-minute-move/
o https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cfpb-cordray/trump-names-interim-consumer-agency-head-likely-sparking-showdown-idUSKBN1DO2KQ?
1 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/business/cordray-consumer-protection.html Trump now can gut CFPB
2 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/business/equifax-cyberattack.html Initial report Equifax help site address
3 https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/what-consumers-need-to-know-about-the-equifax-data-breach/ CR free
4 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/09/08/what-to-know-before-you-check-equifaxs-data-breach-website/?utm_term=.5b10c7c88b3c NY Attorney / CFPB: Equifax help site use may waive rights
5 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/09/08/what-to-know-before-you-check-equifaxs-data-breach-website/?utm_term=.a043274a641f Equifax: Suit waiver not apply NJ Deputy AG: Do not trust Equifax
6 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/your-money/identity-theft/equifaxs-instructions-are-confusing-heres-what-to-do-now.html More recent directions to best try to protect credit and personal information from misuse
7 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/your-money/identity-theft/equifax-breach-credit-freeze.html?mcubz=1 PIN
8 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/09/09/after-the-equifax-breach-heres-how-to-freeze-your-credit-to-protect-your-identity/?utm_term=.e4e2fdef35e6 Credit freeze steps each major credit reporting agency
9 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-equifax-cyber-heitkamp/u-s-senator-on-equifax-hack-somebody-needs-to-go-to-jail-idUSKCN1BN1WN?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29 U.S. Senator "Jail" needed for insider-like trades
10 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/your-money/equifax-fee-waiver.html?mcubz=1 Freeze free within 30 days
11 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/09/12/the-three-big-questions-equifax-hasnt-answered/?utm_term=.473c24221ef0 What security should Equifax have, what does it have and what is lacking?
12 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/09/12/want-to-sue-equifax-but-dont-want-to-hire-a-lawyer-this-chatbot-does-it-for-you/?utm_term=.8d397bf7c65b Chatbot fills in personal small claims lawsuit free
13 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/affected-equifax-hack-heres-now/ PBS Video 32:27 expert advice + article
14 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-equifax-breach/equifax-failed-to-patch-security-vulnerability-in-march-former-ceo-idUSKCN1C71VY?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29 Former CEO Rogers In Congress Takes Blame
15 https://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idINKBN1FP0IZ Equifax probe gut by GOP hack CFPB head Mulvaney
16 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/03/01/equifax-keeps-finding-millions-more-people-who-were-affected-by-its-massive-data-breach/?utm_term=.a443f2e4ac8f Video 4:14 Equifax +2.4 million breaches
17 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-year-of-rolling-back-consumer-protections/2018/03/05/e11713ca-0d05-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html?utm_term=.2a4672293b0c Consumer enemy #1 funny guy "Prick" Mulvaney in payday payoff delights industry guts CFPB ends enforcement actions.
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