Thread by @AntyalT

Thread of some relevant articles, tweets, and other threads on the #EquifaxDataBreach. HALF the US population was affected. Including YOU.

You will need to know if your personal information was part of the breach. If it was, you want protection from Identity theft. Buyer beware:

Equifax has setup a website to check if your data was stolen in the breach, but there's a nefarious catch.
Thread:

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by @zackwhittaker view original on Twitter

Thank the strong consumer protection tendencies of New York State Attorney Generals.

AG Eric T. Schneiderman:

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by @AGSchneiderman view original on Twitter

Equifax has since clarified their terms. DON'T use the Equixfax ID monitoring service. Doing so waives legal rights:

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by @AGSchneiderman view original on Twitter

The Equifax ID and credit monitoring service is called TrustedID.

Use a credit monitoring and ID protection service by another company.

To read and review the Equifax "Terms of Use" for yourself, Zack Whittaker, Security editor for ZDNet recommends:

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by @zackwhittaker view original on Twitter

Worse still, its been discovered that the results by the Equifax breach check tool are questionable. Thread:

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by @zackwhittaker view original on Twitter

As of THIS TWEET, it is still unclear if the tool is reliable, hopefully @AGSchneiderman's office can shed some light on the matter.

To check if you were one of the 143M people whose data was stolen in the July 29th Equifax data breach, go here:
trustedidpremier.com/eligibility/el…

You can use the tool now, but be very skeptical about the reliability of your result until there is clarification:
gizmodo.com/heres-how-to-s…

Identity theft has become a commonplace risk & Congress is still shuffling their feet. Contact your congress person.

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by @realdanstoller view original on Twitter

.@HouseJudiciary needs to act on this now. There have already been too many large data breaches. Enact Regulations.

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by @RepTedLieu view original on Twitter

How to deal with identity theft and how to reduce consequences of ID Theft:
what-is-privacy.com/2016/03/how-to…

A WHOIS search on the Equifax breach tool's website shows that they used a
Whois Privacy Service. Not good.

Look:
registrar.amazon.com/whois?domain=t…

Also this regarding the #equifaxsecurity2017 website:

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by @pagepate view original on Twitter

Plausible speculation by security expert @georgiaweidman that the stolen data was unencrypted plain text.
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by @georgiaweidman view original on Twitter

That would mean all breached data was unprotected. Anyone with access can use it immediately. No encryption means no cryptographic entropy.

If you don't understand why thats bad, you really need to do some basic reading on cryptography and encryption:
gpgtools.tenderapp.com/kb/how-to/intr…

Far too many companies responsible for storing our sensitive personal data are guilty of storing it as plain text. Thats inexcusable.

If hearings on the Equifax data breach do not hold the company accountable, thats just business-as-usual corruption:

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by @AlliedProgress view original on Twitter

So... About the Congressional Hearings Into the Equifax Data Breach
via @AlliedProgress
alliedprogress.org/research/about…

3 Equifax Executives Sold Stock Days After Hack That Wasn't Disclosed For A Month
npr.org/sections/thetw…

Official advisory from the Federal Trade Commission's Division of Consumer & Business Education:
consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/e…

In Wake of Major Equifax Data Breach, AG Healey Launches Investigation and Urges Consumers to Protect Themselves

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by @benswasey view original on Twitter

Update: I verified the domain is registered to Equifax.

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by @CoryGroshek view original on Twitter

Please also be aware that there are phishing websites popping up to steal MORE of your personal data. There are two official websites... 1/3

The main website for information is: 2/3
equifaxsecurity2017.com

And the website for the tool to check if you were exposed in the breach is: 3/3
trustedidpremier.com

UPDATE:
We tested Equifax's data breach checker — and it's basically useless
by @zackwhittaker #EquifaxDataBreach
zdnet.com/article/we-tes…