With the personal information of 143 million Americans exposed in a data breach at credit monitoring company Equifax last week, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said Wednesday his office is joining a multistate investigation into the company. The upshot is hackers now have the most important pieces of identification for almost half the country.
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“If you apply for a credit card or you apply for auto loans…” In addition, credit card numbers for more than 200,000 people appear to have been stolen.
Sacramento The California Department of Business Oversight Consumer Services Office has urged Californians to check if their personal information may have been compromised by the massive Equifax data breach. Chief financial officer John Gamble, president of USA information solutions Joseph Loughran, and president of workforce solutions Rodolfo Ploder reportedly sold a combined $1.75 million in Equifax stocks on August 1 and 2.
Stock trader Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at ONeil Securities in NY, said the shares are sinking because of Equifax’s poor handling of a awful breach. A class action lawyer in OR is using the web address equifaxcase.com to link to his website. Filing can also sometimes require paying a fee, although that payment can be waived in most states with proof of a legitimate identity theft threat, he added. It has also pushed to repeal a federal regulation upholding consumers’ rights to sue.
Sherrod Brown told reporters that the single year of credit monitoring that Equifax is offering those whose data was exposed is “not enough to protect consumers”. Company representatives said in an email statement that Equifax can not comment on litigation. The public backlash prompted Equifax to back off that brazen demand, but what happens after the year is up? If it does then they charge huge amounts.
Equifax has not released any details about the hack other than to suggest that it was related to a USA -based web app.
As for the frequent attacks on individuals at home, DeAngelo said hackers are targeting those who aren’t educated computer users.
There are companies that you can contract with that will monitor your credit activity (reports, etc.) on your behalf and notify you if there is any suspicious activity.
“Social security numbers don’t expire”, he says on the ability of hackers to steal your identity today, tomorrow or 10 years from now.
The problem is not going away. If a person has different credit scores from different bureaus, the most likely explanation is that the scores were calculated using different models. Expect more scrutiny from regulators over the credit bureaus. Warner also partnered with the National Retail Federation to establish an information sharing platform that allows the industry to better protect consumer financial information from data breaches.
You’ll need to write to each of the three credit rating agencies to request that they remove the incorrect information.
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One plaintiffs’ firm, Levi & Korsinsky, has already filed a securities class action against the company in federal court in Atlanta. State investigators in several states have also launched a probe. Your existing credit cards and other accounts will not be impacted.
