Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
09-09-2017, 10:02
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#1
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Inactive
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Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Quote:
US lawmakers attacked credit report giant Equifax after the company revealed that 143 million US customers may have had their information stolen.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41205415
Evidently this affects millions of UK households in one way or another.
It's ironic and extremely worrying that a company engaged in ID theft monitoring amongst many other things should now find itself apparently the victim of people who're very likely going to be involved in just that. No doubt the risk to us all will become apparent in coming days...
I can't be alone in thinking that the ever increasing trend towards huge companies holding vast amounts of our confidential information often without the knowledge of those concerned has to stop. The numbers of victims here is staggering and apparently there could be over 40m victims in the UK!
Last edited by Osem; 09-09-2017 at 10:06.
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09-09-2017, 11:37
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#2
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Haggis Hunting
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Sounds like they got all sorts of info from the US accounts but not so clear if it's just logins from the UK or more.
Dodgy as hell that they waited a month to let people know it happened and in the mean time execs were selling off shares.
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09-09-2017, 11:52
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#3
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Yes it's all very worrying for a lot of people. I have no idea what sort of information they might hold about people who aren't subscribers to their services in some way or other but I gather other major companies like BT, British Gas etc. use them with regard to their own customers so presumably Equifax has information on a whole lot of people who're totally unaware of it.
This is one of the reasons I try to keep my online activities to a minimum but slowly and surely we're all being pushed into doing more and more stuff online which is all fine until something goes wrong, sensitive data goes astray, the guilty companies are slapped on the wrist and we're issued with yet another series of 'lessons have been learned' assurances which hold about as much water as a sieve.
When are the authorities going to get tough about this and prevent such vast amounts of data being held by the same people? The bigger these companies get, the more we're in a situation with an ever increasing number of eggs all on the same basket. By the time the regulatory bodies do what they do, it's too late, they can impose fines but the data has been stolen and millions of people's lives are affected.
Last edited by Osem; 09-09-2017 at 11:56.
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09-09-2017, 14:51
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#4
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Remoaner
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
It sounds like it was information held on behalf of other companies. So names, addresses, basic information on accounts etc
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09-09-2017, 15:24
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#5
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
It sounds like it was information held on behalf of other companies. So names, addresses, basic information on accounts etc
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Cheers.
You mean physical addresses? What other information might they have held on people who aren't subscribers to their services? Could VM be one of their customers and, if so, what sort of information might have been lost? Is there likely to be a need to faff around with VM email account passwords etc. for example?
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09-09-2017, 16:03
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#6
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Haggis Hunting
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
Is there likely to be a need to faff around with VM email account passwords etc. for example?
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Only if you use the same login details for equifax as you do elsewhere. If you don't already use a password manager like LastPass with random long passwords individual to each site you use now is the time to start.
It's things like your name, address, DOB, who you have accounts with and what you owe/are in credit etc they might have access to. Unless you've given credit card details directly to Equifax they won't be at risk.
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09-09-2017, 16:58
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#7
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Remoaner
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
Cheers.
You mean physical addresses? What other information might they have held on people who aren't subscribers to their services? Could VM be one of their customers and, if so, what sort of information might have been lost? Is there likely to be a need to faff around with VM email account passwords etc. for example?
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To be clear I don't know, just speculating, but I doubt they have any passwords for accounts etc. It would be physical addresses for credit checks I would imagine. Also so far I haven't heard of Virgin Media being one of their clients.
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09-09-2017, 17:04
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#8
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kabaal
Only if you use the same login details for equifax as you do elsewhere. If you don't already use a password manager like LastPass with random long passwords individual to each site you use now is the time to start.
It's things like your name, address, DOB, who you have accounts with and what you owe/are in credit etc they might have access to. Unless you've given credit card details directly to Equifax they won't be at risk.
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Thanks. I don't have many online accounts and use different login passwords for all of them as I do with our email accounts. So it seems those who're actual customers of Equifax are potentially going to have worse problems, especially if they've not been careful about passwords etc. as you've mentioned.
---------- Post added at 17:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:00 ----------
I'm forever being asked to sign up for online banking when I go into the bank and always tell them I'm not interested. Next time they do so I'm going to refer to this debacle when I say for the umpteenth time that I don't want any online accounts.
I appreciate that if my bank's systems are compromised then our data could be at risk but there's nothing I can do about that. What I can do something about is refusing to conduct my life online although I believe HMRC for one is intent on making that harder to do.
Last edited by Osem; 09-09-2017 at 17:07.
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09-09-2017, 17:58
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#9
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Also so far I haven't heard of Virgin Media being one of their clients.
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I believe they use Experian.
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09-09-2017, 20:37
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#10
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
How long's it going to be before someone at Equifax tells us what the damage is and the risks are I wonder.
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03-10-2017, 10:25
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#11
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
Quote:
Equifax has revealed 2.5 million more Americans than previously thought may have had information compromised in a huge cyber security breach at the firm.
The credit report giant said on Monday about 145.5 million of its US customers might have been affected, up from a previous estimate of 143 million.
The update came a day before former boss Richard Smith testifies in Congress about the attack.
Mr Smith apologised ahead of the hearing for the firm's failings.
Critics say the company failed to take proper steps to guard information - such as Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses - and waited too long to inform the public.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41474329
This sort of thing is inevitable when we have companies holding so much data on so many people. The more of them there are, the bigger the risk, the larger the task of dealing with breaches and the more lives will be adversely affected by having their personal/financial information misused.
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03-10-2017, 11:44
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#12
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Re: Equifax data breach affects millions in UK
We like having convenient access to credit so need centralised databases holding financial information.
The actual reason for the breach was inexcusable. A total failure to follow basic information security guidelines.
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