Another day, another data hack
Oct. 24th, 2015 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkSo, apparently an Experian server was hacked a few weeks ago. Not the whole Experian database, just a section of it where they stored a bunch of sensitive information related to T-Mobile accounts. Not payment or credit card info, just all the information you give your phone company when you sign up for service (name, address, DOB, SSN, etc.). Apparently T-Mo was under the impression that Experian would use their special expertise to store this information for them securely. Right. They might as well have put it on a government server.
The silver lining is that every time my personal data gets compromised in a well-publicized data breach I get a free Identity Protection Service for a year or two. This time it's Experian's own "Protect My ID Elite." This looks better than the cheapo version I got from Target after their data breach a few years ago. About all that one did was send alerts every time I opened a new credit card. This one has all kinds of nifty services that I hope I never need, like a Lost Wallet service to help make frantic calls to credit card issuers and a $1 Million Identity Theft Insurance policy.
There's an Internet Scan service that promises to "continually monitor a vast number of online sources where compromised credit and debit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personal data is found, traded or sold."
It also includes quick and easy access to my Experian credit report. Somewhat surprisingly, it seems to be 100% accurate.
The silver lining is that every time my personal data gets compromised in a well-publicized data breach I get a free Identity Protection Service for a year or two. This time it's Experian's own "Protect My ID Elite." This looks better than the cheapo version I got from Target after their data breach a few years ago. About all that one did was send alerts every time I opened a new credit card. This one has all kinds of nifty services that I hope I never need, like a Lost Wallet service to help make frantic calls to credit card issuers and a $1 Million Identity Theft Insurance policy.
There's an Internet Scan service that promises to "continually monitor a vast number of online sources where compromised credit and debit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personal data is found, traded or sold."
It also includes quick and easy access to my Experian credit report. Somewhat surprisingly, it seems to be 100% accurate.
