Giant Equifax data breach: 143 million people affected (SSN, credit cards etc)

Cybersecurity
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Equifax says a giant cybersecurity breach compromised the personal information of as many as 143 million Americans — almost half the country.

Additionally, Equifax said that credit card numbers for about 209,000 U.S. customers were exposed, as was “personal identifying information” on roughly 182,000 U.S. customers involved in credit report disputes. Residents in the U.K. and Canada were also impacted.

The breach occurred between mid-May and July, Equifax said. The company said it discovered the hack on July 29.

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If you’re going to steal personal data, I’d think Equifax (or Experian/TRW) would be ideal. Most of these credit agencies are compiling a ton of great personal information with credit ratings (courtesy of Fair, Isaac). Seems like the holy grail for identity fraudsters.

Would decentralisation of 99% of this data render the system unusable (such as if I stored my personal details keyed to a node ID or proof of identity key on my own system or SAFE node) and they instead just stored my ID and credit score on theirs?

Seems like a nobrainer, but I’m sure there’d have to be some validation mechanisms, otherwise I could change personal details that would alter the score without the scorer knowing about it.

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