This Wall Street Journal report gives more details on how the Equifax hack happened — more for me, at least. The report also includes this statement suggesting that Equifax's security is not so great: Alex Holden, chief information security officer of identity-theft monitoring company Hold Security LLC, says Equifax has long been considered a target for identity […]
by Jeff Sovern Earlier this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren issued a press release about the responses she had received from Bank CEOs to her questions about the CFPB's arbitration rule, Responses from Bank CEOs Demonstrate Positive Impact of CFPB Arbitration Rule, Undermine Industry Case for Reversal. The press release contains a lot of interesting information, […]
Here, in the LA Times. Excerpt: First, visit the company’s often crashing Web page to check if your information was compromised. Then decide whether to sign up for the one year of free credit monitoring, * * * Next, the personal finance experts said, freeze your credit reports, not just at Equifax, but at its […]
by Jeff Sovern Equifax is, as expected, turning into a huge consumer protection story and as with many such stories, it is generating so much news that not only is it hard to keep up, it seems easier to give up. Still, I wanted to direct our readers to a report in the Times, Equifax […]
by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, the House passed an appropriations bill that incorporates provisions from the Financial Choice Act that would cripple the CFPB. According to Law360: The base bill would make a number of changes to the CFPB, including bringing it under the purview of the normal appropriations process. In addition, the bill would remove […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. The customers in question had purchased Equifax's credit monitoring service. You know, the service it's now offering for free. Oh, and in addition to the CFPB investigation, the NY AG's investigation, and the class actions, the FTC is now investigating the security breach.
Just two days before Equifax made public the massive hack of sensitive information of 143 million Americans — which Equifax kept secret for many weeks — U.S PIRG's Ed Mierzwinski posted this piece criticizing the three credit reporting agencies for their incompetence and congressional republicans for seeking to deregulate the industry. Here's an excerpt: What would you do […]
That's the first topic of this Consumerist article by Kate Cox. The article explains that Equifax had been given a fix for the computer vulnerability that the led to the hack, and Equifax had it well in advance of the breach. But the fix was not used at least in part because installing the fix was "labor intensive […]
Over at Credit Slips, law prof Adam Levitin has written Equifax: A Call for Public Utility Regulation of Consumer Reporting Agencies. It's a comprehensive and interesting post, and it's worth reading the whole thing. He starts by explaining the hacking of Equifax in plain terms — what it was (for instance, how it is different from […]
Can a company designing a driverless car simulate "the little nods and go-ahead half-waves that keep people from getting into crashes"? That's a topic of this article by Michael Laris.