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Myequifax.com Bypasses Credit Freeze Pin
- deanmoriarty 8y agoI've literally noticed this myself last month when I went to temporarily lift my freeze to apply for a new credit card. I never got asked for the PIN, which I diligently save and securely store. I remember I was explicitly asked for it just a year ago (last time I had to do the same to open another card). I felt like an idiot.
- erichurkman 8y agoThey don't want to make it hard to use your credit report. The worse job they do with security theater the more money they make, and the easier it is for you to obtain credit products. If they actually applied any reasonable security, the friction of getting new credit would reduce new customer acquisition. For my view, that's ideal: people should put real, explicit thought into obtaining new credit or debt products. It's too easy right now, especially with products like Credit Karma trivializing getting new credit cards.
- r00fus 8y ago> They don't want to make it hard to use your credit report. The worse job they do with security theater the more money they make, and the easier it is for you to obtain credit products. This is why we need to legislate these companies now, and re-incentivize them to do the right thing.
- css 8y ago> the data being asked about in these KBA quizzes is culled from public records Yesterday, when opening a savings account with a major US financial institution, one of the KBA questions asked for my Zodiac sign. The other two were about a mortgage and the year I was born (±1 year). I do not understand why any competent institution would find these secure and it appalls me that is all the information needed to open an account in my name. Edit: Here is the screenshot https://i.imgur.com/Mr8gOOA.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Mr8gOOA.jpg
- hsk0823 8y agoNo one thinks this is actually secure, it's security theater. The thing is, the cost of identity theft of consumers to credit reporting companies is less than the cost to actually adopt secure methods to judge one's credit.
- arcticbull 8y agoYou’re exactly right. It’s the same reason we’re required to sign checks then the bank promptly ignores the signatures. It’s cheaper to handle the fraud than check the signatures, but it makes us feel good to do it anyways.
- ktjfi 8y agoI guess the signatures are there in case someone complains? They can just pull the check and see if the signature is legit. But checking every signature is simply too much work.
- usea 8y agoIt's my understanding (from hearsay) that they use software to look at signatures, and use that data as a fraud signal, among other data.
- css 8y ago> the bank promptly ignores the signatures You're technically supposed to sign and endorse the back of every check you electronically deposit; I have never done this since my bank offered mobile deposit and have never had a check rejected. It honestly just makes me sad.
- floatingatoll 8y agoThey’re upgrading this to require you to write “mobile deposit for XYZ bank” as well, so that you can’t double-deposit without getting caught early on.
- dev1n 8y agoCan we just shut down equifax already?
- ktjfi 8y agoThis is not reddit.
- mumphster 8y agoOk and...? Seems like a valid line of conversation to me.
- shawnz 8y agoExcept it doesn't address the problem at all. What happens when another negligent credit bureau pops up to replace it?
- mumphster 8y agoExactly the line of conversation I'd love to see :)
- philipov 8y agoWe shut them down, too.
- human 8y agoWe should really work on making personal data transactions illegal. I can’t think of a single company that I would be happy to hear that they sold my data to third-party. These companies provide no additonal benefits. Equifax is the worst. You can call them and ask to buy lists of names, addresses and phone numbers of people matching certain financial criterias. Facebook would look dull in comparison if people knew the extent of the Equifax abuse of privacy.
- shawnz 8y ago> These companies provide no additonal benefits. They provide safety for lenders, which allows those lenders to offer you cheaper prices. Is that worth it? Not sure personally, but I don't think it's fair to say that they are totally without benefit.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- fhinson 8y ago> SSN and DOB data is widely available for sale in the cybercrime underground on almost all U.S. citizens. This has been the reality for years, and was so well before Equifax announced its big 2017 breach. Again, I find that this only reinforces the fact that SSNs are not a useful identification system because there's nothing secure about them. Can someone explain where attackers obtain SSN/DOB data with such a widespread success rate?
- ryanlol 8y agoAccurint is a big one. The people selling SSN lookups have big DB collections, but the primary source tends be realtime access to DBs like these. I'd imagine it's trivial to pretend to be a cop and just purchase access to this stuff, not that it's going to be hard to hack most police departments either.
- rlucas 8y agoHaving looked at getting Accurint and Clear back in 2013, I can tell you the process is not trivial but not comforting either. On the non-trivial side: I was doing a startup where we sublet from a law firm. We had an on-site audit by someone who came in and we were cautioned that we had to have an independently locking door on our office. We also had to give a reasonably thorough explanation of what we wanted to do with the data and certify, as well as convince the auditor, that we would be using it for GLBA (anti-fraud in financial transactions) purposes. We actually failed one of the audits the first time because some paperwork wasn't in place (I think we had changed the Delaware company name and not re-filed something, like our local jurisdiction foreign corporate registration, in the new name). On the not comforting side: the sales reps for these products have full access and will let you do lookups and surf through on whatever. 100% unmasked details on any numbers you want. DMV, aircraft, SSN, judgments, etc., all linked and at the ready. Also, GLBA is a giant Sherman-tank sized loophole that means that essentially anybody can fully legally use these databases as long as there's some cognizable financial transaction that you're protecting from fraud (even proactively / research wise). See https://risk.nexis.com/AMLSolutions/help/GLBA_Permissible_Use.htm https://risk.nexis.com/AMLSolutions/help/GLBA_Permissible_Us... So no, you can't just "pretend to be a cop" but if you actually go to the trouble of being some sort of fraud-prevention business, you can just go wild.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 8y agoWhen can we all agree that nothing connected to the internet is secure. Ever. ?
- mherdeg 8y agoA real-life attack based on this kind of hole was discussed at https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/ay7aoy/identity_thief_is_unfreezing_my_credit_freeze/ https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/ay7aoy/ide... : someone says that an identity thief who knows all their knowledge-based question answers (because they have a copy of a credit report, no doubt) keeps somehow removing the freeze and committing more fraud.
- astura 8y agoSome KBA questions don't show up on your credit report, that being said, they can still be guessed with some certainty if you know the person. Some examples either me or my husband have gotten: -What month was [person] born? [person] was my mom and one option was "I don't know [person]." Luckily they didn't ask the date, because I don't know that, but I do know the month. -Which of the following people are/were you associated with?, my ex-roommate as one of the answers. Makes sense to connect us if we had the same address at the same time. -Which of the following people are/were you associated with?, my ex as one of the answers. This one baffled me because we never lived together and never had a bank account or loan together. Which town did/does [person] live in? Where [person] was my husband's brother. Of course, useless if everyone still lives in their hometown. I've also been asked about the previous cars I've owned, which are from DMV and insurance databases, not credit reports. The entire concept of KBA is flawed and pretty shitty all around.
- mfoy_ 8y ago> my ex as one of the answers. This one baffled me because we never lived together and never had a bank account or loan together Yikes. Where did they get that from? I wonder if they also collected tons of info from FaceBook like it seems everyone else has.
- astura 8y agoThis was around... Oh... 8-9 years ago and I'm still trying to figure it out. It's honestly bothered me since then. I just really want to know how they connected us. I'm not mad they did, I just want to know how. We never had an insurance policy together or anything else like that either.
- JustSomeNobody 8y ago> “We deployed an experience that embraces both security standards (using a multi-factor and layered approach to verify the consumer’s identity) and reflects specific consumer feedback on managing security freezes and fraud alerts online without the use of a PIN,” she continued. “The account set-up process, which involves the creation of a username and password, relies on both user inputs and other factors to securely establish, verify, and authenticate that the consumer’s identity is connected to the consumer every time.” She tosses around the word security, but really what she is saying is that Equifax decided to make the experience as simple as possible because having people create accounts with them without the need for boosting CSR headcount is more important that securing those accounts.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jiveturkey 8y agopassword policy for my.equifax.com is ... not best practice. at least they allow up to 20 characters. must include one special character from a set of ... FIVE. and those are the only allowed special characters.
- criddell 8y agoWhenever they limit the number of characters to something small, it makes me wonder if they are storing the password in their database rather than some hash of the password. I complained about this to my old bank (Wells Fargo) and they told me not to worry about it because I'm protected from fraud.
- mjevans 8y agoIt generally means they're not handling it in a secure way. Worst case scenario is that if the checks you see client side aren't also server side someone might be able to inject things that run as... whatever the server side processes are. Usually anyplace that has a limit less than 512 characters (often 1024, but some string buffers are small) or on the characters you can use, at all, isn't doing it right.
- jiveturkey 8y agoIt generally means that yes. But sometimes it also has to do with CSR calls. eg, by not allowing spaces in passwords, you eliminate an entire class of PEBKAC errors. I don't for a second believe that's why my.equifax.com is doing it. It's certainly not why there's a 20 character limit. (I personally use 64 char passwords wherever such long ones are allowed.)
- zelon88 8y agoEquifax has the unique ability to collect the most private information available, even when they have never or will never interact with that person. I think the entire credit system needs to be changed. If credit bureau's can't be responsible then citizens should get a choice in the matter. These companies have us by the balls and we have no recourse. It's a monopoly complete with price fixing and everything, except the price is privacy and you don't get any options. It reminds me of an episode of Hotel Hell I saw where the front desk stored all guest credit card numbers, expiration date, and security code in a white lined notebook unlocked behind the counter. Gordon Ramsay walks up to an unstaffed counter, grabs the book, and walks off with it. Now imagine that the hotel blatantly admits to not giving a shit about your credit card details, and you don't have the option of checking out and taking your business elsewhere.
- jjeaff 8y agoI'm normally not a fan of congressional hearings where everyone is trying to grandstand, but this one was particularly good. The congresswoman asked the Equifax CEO to provide his birthday and social security number publicly for the record. He of course refused and when asked why, he said because that is sensitive information. All the while, Equifax attorneys are arguing in court that there is no harm in leaking private data like SSNs and thus they shouldn't be held liable for any damages. https://www.fastcompany.com/90312551/watch-a-congresswoman-destroy-equifax-ceo-mark-begor-in-an-epic-privacy-burn https://www.fastcompany.com/90312551/watch-a-congresswoman-d...
- ModernMech 8y agoThat's all well and good, but what was the concrete result of the hearing? Nothing actually happened and Equifax continues merrily along doing what it's always done.
- jdsully 8y agoCongressional hearings are about informing law makers (and also for grandstanding). They are not intended to provide immediate results in the way a trial would. The results if any will be in the form of legislation at a later date.
- RandomCitizen 8y agoI just made upper management aware at Equifax. Let's see how long this takes until they require the FUCKING PIN number to unfreeze your credit on their website. What a joke.
- monochromatic 8y agoWe’ll see. >Equifax spokesperson Nancy Bistritz-Balkan said not requiring a PIN for people with existing freezes was by design. >“With myEquifax, we created an online experience that enables consumers to securely and conveniently manage security freezes and fraud alerts,” Bistritz-Balkan said..
- smush 8y agoThanks for posting this, please reply back and let us know their reaction. It might be popcorn worthy, or it might be 'meh' - either way, it is of interest to me and I suspect HN.
- trjordan 8y agoIf you require the PIN to lift a credit freeze, some people will lose their PIN and never be able to lift the credit freeze. So there must be a workaround that relies on verifying identity, based on non-random information (e.g. no PINs, no passwords). They've made it too easy, but until we can request that a credit agency blacklist an SSN and forget all associated information, this will keep happening.
- benatkin 8y agoI lost my PIN since I moved twice after freezing my credit and apparently didn't store it in my computer. I was able to temporarily lift my security freeze without it, and I found it convenient but a bit unsettling. Glad I'm not the only one.
- beart 8y agoMy guess is the pin is largely pointless anyway. This new system was put in place because a large number of people forget or lose their pin. This would require a support ticket every time. The new system is intended to reduce support costs.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoSerious question: what’s to stop a startup or 2 or 3 from creating an alternative credit check system that’s not as horrendous as the current one, thus displacing the current overlords?
- mikeash 8y agoOnly the difficulty of convincing financial companies to report to and pull info from your system.
- turtlegrids 8y agoSecure for thee, but not for me!
- joeblau 8y agoIs there anything a regular individual can do to help get this company shut down?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
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