Almost every single American affected with this one.
Almost every single American affected with this one.
Hopefully the dickheads who stole my identity will do a better job with it than I have.
I've always assumed that Experian and Equifax leaked all that anyhow. Using the SSN as an identifier is so, so broken.
In the back of my mind, I've always thought it would be funny if some of these ID theft prevention companies actually did the hacking (or paid for it overseas) to keep their business relevant.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
It wasn't all that long ago that it was encouraged to engrave your SSN on tools for identification purposes. The master plumber that trained me had his on every single socket, wrench, and tool he owned.
Ok, scratch that, I guess it was like 60 years ago that was encouraged.
This was inevitable. Security of your personal data is an ever changing job. Personally I never use my phone for financial transactions. I only do financial transactions when offered 2 or 3 step confirmation. I want a security code sent to my phone or email as a final step, that isn't perfect but the policy has worked. Credit card numbers have been abused but every time the CC company sent me a text and the transaction was canceled.
We have one PC with extra security software for financial transactions, it never connects to any wifi but ours. When traveling it gets tethered to the cell for web access. Not sure if all this helps or if we are lucky.
RevRico said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
It wasn't all that long ago that it was encouraged to engrave your SSN on tools for identification purposes. The master plumber that trained me had his on every single socket, wrench, and tool he owned.
Ok, scratch that, I guess it was like 60 years ago that was encouraged.
I've encountered so many old film cameras and lenses with engraved SSNs on it, stuff all the way from the 50s up til 80s.
porschenut said:This was inevitable. Security of your personal data is an ever changing job. Personally I never use my phone for financial transactions. I only do financial transactions when offered 2 or 3 step confirmation. I want a security code sent to my phone or email as a final step, that isn't perfect but the policy has worked. Credit card numbers have been abused but every time the CC company sent me a text and the transaction was canceled.
We have one PC with extra security software for financial transactions, it never connects to any wifi but ours. When traveling it gets tethered to the cell for web access. Not sure if all this helps or if we are lucky.
Don't confuse a stolen credit card number with a stolen SSN. The difference is that you're not liable for fraudulent charges on your credit card, so the banks and vendors have deployed all sorts of measures to detect and avoid it. They're motivated by the financial factor, not your best interests.
But they're not responsible for safeguarding your identity and SSN. There are some policies around protecting personal information, but if there's a breach it's "well, that's a shame". This is particularly problematic if they have the sort of information required to open new lines of credit or loans.
These breaches were not on your own devices. They were of databases stored by various companies, probably one you've never done business with directly.
SSN didn't become a secret until the 1980's. My SSN was on my college ID card and all over my student records - in the 60's and 70's your SSN wasn't any more private than your name.
Of course, there wasn't much in the way of consumer credit back then. You might have a charge card at Macy's or a Diner's Club card but MC/VISA didn't exist yet. (for most people)
Keith Tanner said:I've always assumed that Experian and Equifax leaked all that anyhow. Using the SSN as an identifier is so, so broken.
I have my original Social Security Card that was issued right after I was born in the late 50's.
It says "Not to be used for identification purposes" on it. At some point that statement was removed on later cards.
GA driver's license numbers were SSNs until 2007.
If you want to see if you are in one of these breaches, and I suspect that 99% of us on here have been, you can check this site (It has a pretty comprehensive list of my previous addresses):
The above is linked from this site (a pretty well know tech guy), which has some other useful links also:
https://richontech.tv/p/protect-from-ssn-hack-shake-shack
If you want to freeze your credit, and you should if you have no immediate use for it, the gov site for that, which has links to the credit agencies, is here:
aircooled said:If you want to see if you are in one of these breaches, and I suspect that 99% of us on here have been, you can check this site (It has a pretty comprehensive list of my previous addresses):
According to this site, my info has been leaked. Interestingly, my wife's data has not.
In reply to jmabarone :
Interestingly, or perhaps frighteningly, there are about 5 entries for me... one of which has a completely different phone number.
Should I be doing anything about that?
Wow. Some of the info in that link is incredibly old. I didn't even remember living at some of those addresses. There are 21 entries for me.
And it seems to be missing a lot of current stuff. My last 3 addresses over the last 7 years aren't in there.
Like Duke, I've got a couple weird looking ones. But it's so old that they really should have stolen all my E36 M3 by now.
Weird... they have several old addresses for me but not the one I've lived at for the last 20 years.
SV reX said:Wow. Some of the info in that link is incredibly old. I didn't even remember living at some of those addresses. There are 21 entries for me.
And it seems to be missing a lot of current stuff. My last 3 addresses over the last 7 years aren't in there.
Like Duke, I've got a couple weird looking ones. But it's so old that they really should have stolen all my E36 M3 by now.
Sometimes it's not about stealing your stuff, just stealing your good credit so they can get their own stuff and never pay for it.
No data found for me! Guess thats a good thing.
In my case, someone tried to open a BoA checking account under my name. When I asked the rep why someone would try that, he said that it happens for money laundering. By passing the money through my name, they blur the trail.
I asked if I could just take the money if I caught it in "my" account, but they discourage that.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
What is the alternative? retina scan? facial recognition? That stuff creeps me out.
Remember when Todd Davis, the CEO of LifeLock plastered his SS number onto billboards claiming how great his product was and got it hacked something like 13 time?
In reply to bludroptop :
My SSN was on my college ID in the late 1990s.
Yep we had SS# engraved on stuff. I had them on my checks in the 90's...
I worked for Ford starting in '95 and I remember having team meetings with printouts of everyone's SS#.
If you were hired in on the same day seniority was either based on your social or your B-day....so all that info was pretty easy to get in those days.
God bless the person that tries to use my SSN and gets laughed at.
My SSN was on my first driver's license.
And it wasn't more than a couple decades ago that your full credit card number was printed on your receipt
You'll need to log in to post.
