Number Nine

RJM62

RJM62

Touchdown! Greaser!
Gone West
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
13,157
Location
Upstate New York
Display Name
Geek on the Hill
I got a letter from Excellus Blue Cross / Blue Shield today informing me that their system was hacked beginning in late December, 2013. They were one of the BCBS affiliates through which I have been insured. (Anthem was the other, and I got caught up in their breach, too.)

This marks the ninth time -- that I know of, at least -- that my personal or financial information has been compromised or potentially compromised. The first was the V.A. laptop theft. In between were the Target hack, the Adobe hack, the Food Town hack, the Home Depot hack, the Anthem hack, the eBay hack, and the OPM hack.

Excellus is giving me two years of identity theft protection through some company named Kroll. I kind of wish it were AllClearID because they would just daisy-chain it to my two existing two-year subscriptions from two previous breaches. But I guess Kroll is okay. Maybe the next company that gets hacked will use Kroll too, and I can daisy-chain that subscription to this one.

Rich
 
Wouldn't it be interesting to find out that the companies getting paid all this money for ID protection are the ones actually doing the hacking??
 
Anymouse said:
Wouldn't it be interesting to find out that the companies getting paid all this money for ID protection are the ones actually doing the hacking??
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You know, one of the ironies of all this is that the data / I.D. protection companies are also juicy targets. Some day one of them is going to get hacked, and then the **** is really gonna hit the fan.

Rich
 
Anymouse said:
Wouldn't it be interesting to find out that the companies getting paid all this money for ID protection are the ones actually doing the hacking??
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. Sounds like the plot of a really bad movie.
 
Anymouse said:
Wouldn't it be interesting to find out that the companies getting paid all this money for ID protection are the ones actually doing the hacking??
Click to expand...

If they were, they'd make a lot more off using the data than protecting your identity.
 
Anymouse said:
Wouldn't it be interesting to find out that the companies getting paid all this money for ID protection are the ones actually doing the hacking??
Click to expand...


Probably not, considering the CEO of LifeLock had his credit stolen multiple times, the company was slammed with $12M in regulatory fines, he was fired, and they're still touting in commercials today, over four years after this article, that they can save you. LOL.

http://www.wired.com/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/

They're criminals, but mostly just the dumb kind that promote useless crap, which is a significant portion of the "computer security" industry.
 
What do Kroll and AllClearID do, anyway? Do they actually prevent ID theft, or do they just detect it and then let you know?
 
NoHeat said:
What do Kroll and AllClearID do, anyway? Do they actually prevent ID theft, or do they just detect it and then let you know?
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I never heard of Kroll before. AllClearID basically checks to see whether there's anything fishy going on with your credit (address changes, new accounts, etc.). They did notify me when I opened a new account with a $5,000.00 credit line, so they actually do keep tabs on that sort of thing. But they notified me several days after the fact, which makes me wonder how useful they would have been had it been fraudulent.

They also claim to provide recovery services and some insurance against identity theft. That can become quite a hairy situation, so I suppose the insurance is a good thing. But my homeowner's policy also provides that, so I'm not sure whether it would be worth paying for.

I guess it's worth having if someone else is paying for it, however. The way things have been going, I doubt I'll ever have to pay for it again. They're already daisy-chaining my free memberships that were paid for by the companies that were hacked.

Rich
 
The same thing happened with UCLA Health in CA. They were breached, had suspicions in Oct 2014, ordered investigation in July 2015. Got a letter last week saying that they were breached.

"We care deeply about your privacy and information" etc etc.

Gave my dad/me MyIDcare subscriptions (I checked the source and the internet to make sure it wasn't a scam) and signed up like my dad did. With the exact information that people are looking to steal.

Got a call last week asking for my dad on my cell phone. I said that I was his son and the lady told me his glasses were ready. Reverse searched the number on google, it's an eyecare place about 40mi away. Apparently. Dad called because he didn't order any and they said they transposed the numbers accidentally.

A week before -that-, my parents told me that I had a bill at their place for a hospital visit late last year in Norman. I didn't live there at that point :dunno: And the bill had my dad's name on it instead of mine. Parents called them, they were told that a number was transposed and not to worry.

Something's fishy.
 
Anymouse said:
Wouldn't it be interesting to find out that the companies getting paid all this money for ID protection are the ones actually doing the hacking??
Click to expand...


You mean in the same manner of the FTC selling names on the DNC to telemarketers and robo-callers?
 
Perhaps we just need to go back to local banks being the ones who give out loans so that the people taking the money out actually have to go in and shake hands with the lender.

Maybe when you borrow money they should have to take a photograph of you in person.. or better yet video and keep it on record.

The current system of doing it by social security number is absolutely ridiculous from any kind of security standpoint. With everyone using it for everything from taxes to cell phones to student IDs there is no way you can possibly expect to keep it protected.
 
RJM62 said:
I guess it's worth having if someone else is paying for it, however. The way things have been going, I doubt I'll ever have to pay for it again. They're already daisy-chaining my free memberships that were paid for by the companies that were hacked.
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I just got free monitoring by Experian, for Experian being hacked.

Not kidding. LOL! Such a joke it all is.
 
Were you a T-Mobile customer? I heard their customers were hacked at Experian.
 
NoHeat said:
Were you a T-Mobile customer? I heard their customers were hacked at Experian.
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I was a T-Mo customer some years back, but I was on prepaid so they knew little about me other than my name. Not having to provide my SSN or other sensitive information is one of the biggest reasons I stay on prepaid.

T-Mo did have my credit card number on file for payment, but whichever card it was surely would have been reissued already due to one of the other hacks.

Rich
 
Let me see if I have this right. There is a company named Kroll that is protecting us from the Trolls
 
NoHeat said:
Were you a T-Mobile customer? I heard their customers were hacked at Experian.
Click to expand...


Still am. Yep.

I think since the first "your data was lost" event triggered by a college I attended, as a young whippersnapper, to the present day, there have only been a few years where I wasn't getting free credit monitoring.

College, employers, various businesses, even a government agency have all apparently lost my personal info over time, and those are the ones who knew and reported it.

The only reasonable assumption is that idiots with bad computer hygiene, will just keep losing the data, and then paying for free monitoring for a couple of years, as their "solution" to doing so. There's really no getting away from it.

First time I've seen a credit score vendor pay for their own credit monitoring, though. Not much of a surprise, really.
 
What's the reason for the time limit in credit monitoring, in general? If your SS number and birthdate are stolen, why would they cut off the monitoring after say 2 years? Won't that info still be useful to crooks after 3 years or even more?
 
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I have some friends in the IT security business and it's become readily apparent to them and their associates that it's not a matter of who has been breached, but who hasn't been breached. Your personal information is more than likely already out there and now it's just a matter of if and when someone wants to use it. The credit monitoring services do nothing more than notify you AFTER someone has decided to use it. They are somewhat useful in helping you navigate the maze of procedures in getting the various credit bureaus and creditors to remove the fraudulent records and fix your credit score, but that's only AFTER it's happened. They do nothing towards protecting you from it happening again.

If you think you are a likely target for ID theft, you might check into having a 90-day "fraud alert" placed in your credit file with each of the major credit bureaus. Or even better is to have them place a "freeze" status on your credit file. You can continue to use existing credit cards, but will not be able to apply for new credit until you authorize the freeze to be lifted either temporarily or permanently. This action effectively limits what the bad guys can do with your identity, although I'm told they can still engage in some fraudulent activity (file an IRS return, apply for checking acct. etc.).
 
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