Worry about the spies, not thieves, who may have breached Equifax
The Equifax breach stole names, addresses, birth dates, and credit card numbers for over 200,000 consumers. One might immediately assume that cyber criminals made the attack in order to sell the information to identity thieves who will run up fraudulent charges, file fake tax returns, defraud mortgages and loans, purchase goods with stolen credit cards or steal a subscription to HBO in time for next season’s Game of Thrones.
But where most see thieves, I see spies.
The cyber intrusion also stole documents used in disputes for approximately 182,000 people. This includes personal identifiable information that sophisticated attackers could use to gain entry into medical records, bank accounts, employer email accounts and networks — virtually anywhere that a person has an online presence. Most consumers are still slow to adopt secondary protection schemes like two-factor authentication and continue to use challenge questions that relate directly to their personal lives. If a spy agency in China, North Korea or Russia (the three most likely culprits in the Equifax breach) has this information, they could use it to infiltrate other accounts of targeted individuals, particularly those persons of interest in government agencies.
http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/350868-worry-about-foreign-spies-not-thieves-who-may-have-breached-equifax
Equifax
