U.S. states probing security breach at Experian unit


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BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. attorneys general have launched a multi-state investigation into a breach in which criminals gained access to a repository of some 200 million social security numbers through a unit of data provider Experian Plc.
 
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I guess more news will surface about this in the next few hours.

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Hacking is everywhere i want it to stop
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Scary when even the credit monitoring agencies can't get their security tight enough.
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Beyond scary....
 
Manywould  argue that the credit reporting companies do too much damage as it is...
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@ wrote:
Scary when even the credit monitoring agencies can't get their security tight enough.
Yeah, you're right nic.
Unfortunately, such situations occur more and more frequently.
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 An exclusive KrebsOnSecurity investigation detailing how a unit of credit bureau Experian ended up selling consumer records to an identity theft service in the cybercrime underground has prompted a multi-state investigation by several attorneys general, according to wire reports.
 Reuters moved a story this afternoon quoting Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan saying that  ”it’s part of a multistate investigation,” and that Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said that Connecticut is looking into the matter as well.
 U.S. States Investigating Breach at Experian — Krebs on Security
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(Excerpt)
US authorities haven’t revealed if they know how many individuals are impacted by the breach, and no specific cases of data from Court Ventures being used for identity theft have been identified.

Experian says that it’s working on determining what records are impacted, but so far, neither Experian nor US Info Search has notified customers because they haven’t been able to identify those affected by the breach.
 
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For a company that prides itself on 'knowing everything', this is highly disturbing.
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There is a huge failng somewhere.
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HeyDermont7 you are so right...it's highly disturbing..what's next?
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Agreed that is disturbing.  They seem like the Keystone Cops at this point.
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In the wake of long-overdue media attention to revelations that a business unit of credit bureau Experian sold consumer personal data directly to an online service that catered to identity thieves, Experian is rightfully trying to explain its side of the story by releasing a series of talking points. This blog post is an attempt to add more context and fact-checking to those talking points.
Experian has posted several articles on its Web properties that lament the existence of “inaccurate information about Experian circulating in news outlets and other Web sites.”
“It’s no surprise that cybercrime and data breaches are hot topics for media and bloggers these days,” wrote Gerry Tschopp, senior vice president of public affairs at Experian. “Unfortunately, because of all the attention paid to these topics, we’ve seen some inaccurate information about Experian circulating in news outlets and other Web sites. I want to take a moment to clarify the facts and events.”
 I’ve read this clarification closely, and it seems that Experian’s latest talking points deserve some clarification and fact-checking of their own.
 Fact-Checking Experian’s Talking Points — Krebs on Security
 

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