Paying Attention:
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Equifax got hacked. Big time. Over 143 million (one hundred forty-three million) records were stolen. Equifax is a big credit reporting service (one of three) and this type of data breach is not supposed to happen at a company that deals with such sensitive data. I talked with a computer expert about it and he said that big hacks like the one that Equifax (and now 143 million Americans) go through are typically enabled because the company (Equifax) is using computer systems with legacy hardware and legacy software. In Equifax’s case, they were also using “open source” software. Does that sound ominous for a company that has a massive amount of personal financial data on millions of people. It was.
You’re going to have to deal with it and take some action (sign up for credit monitoring; freeze your credit). To understand the dimensions of the problem, read this piece about the value of data on the “dark web”.
The whole thing is scary. Did someone tell you life in the future would be easier?
The Fine Print: Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. Post produced by Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker.