Keep an eye on your Experian accounts: Some profiles hijacked using personal info

Experian customers are reportedly at risk of having their accounts hijacked by fraudsters who only need a victim's personal information and a different email address to recreate an account in their name. Infosec blogger Brian Krebs wrote in a column Monday that over the past month he was contacted by two readers who said their …

[Anonymous Coward]

Broader problem

He also noted that "Experian, like most companies the security industry anoints as 'repeat offenders,' has little incentive – or rather, lacks meaningful penalties – to increase its security. The company is one of three major credit bureaus and, as such, lacks sufficient incentive to have more security than its two competitors. It simply has to be as good as the others, not better."

It's not just Experian, or credit bureaus, it's practically all companies who lack incentive or penalties to be anything more than "as good as others" when it comes to security.

And we read about it here all the time.

[Mayday]

This drives me up the wall

People (yes, people) are held by the short and curries by these companies (Experian, D&B, Equifax etc) and if one thing is wrong it is all over for you, and when they cock it up, it is still all over for you.

It's not like you can say, "oh we wont use them again" or "I wont buy a XX again from them" because we have no choice. We aren't the customer, just the product and of course, they all "Take security very seriously" and may even be "sorry for the inconvenience" when there's a breach.

I'll stop now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: This drives me up the wall

Some years ago the Brazilian branch of those thugs sent me a message saying that I hadn't paid an old electricity bill, which, of course, I had. In order to "solve my problem," I had to go to one of their offices and present proof of payment -- which didn't make any sense since the electricity company would have cut my electricity if I was in debt.

Nevertheless, I went there, more to complain about the general stupidity than to "solve my problem". They saw the proof of payment and said "OK", with an attitude like "OK, this time you're clear, but we will keep an eye on you, you criminal".

Useless parasites! Even politicians have some value to society (namely, scandals).

[Gene Cash]

Official complaints?

So do Krebs or anyone make official complaints to the FTC (or whoever oversees these credit bureaus) so that this can be taken seriously?

[Mike 137]

"Experian customers..."

No person is an 'Experian customer' for the simple reason that there's absolutely no mutuality in the relationship. You can't prevent them holding your credit record.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Experian customers..."

But we absolutely can, and should. We will need to ram it down their throats of course, along with their buddies. All we need to do it vote on it. That said you need to be careful how you write that one, as there could be blowback from choosing to erase your own credit history.

That said, if you can request the transfer of that data to the third party of your choice in addition to accessing it yourself, as well as it's deletion, you can break the power dynamic they rely on. At that point the least competent or most predatory credit agency could easily be put out of business overnight, and they suddenly will find the motivation they have been lacking.

Also that means you could transfer your credit reporting data to something like your local credit union instead, which has an alignment of interests in your financial well being.

[Politically Correct]

How would an SMS text message two factor authentication work for those of us that either do not own a mobile or have changed their mobile number?

[sitta_europea]

Why isn't this also listed under 'Security'?