Equifax Data Breach and the Future of Identity Verification

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Quote:

Equifax, one of the three main credit reporting companies, said this week that a major data breach exposed Social Security numbers and other important information of millions of people. The breach affected about 143 million in the United States, as well as some people in Canada and the United Kingdom, but Equifax didn't provide a number. Hackers had access to the data between May and July, Equifax said. The company discovered the hack on July 29 and publicly announced it more than a month later on Thursday.

How bad is this? In the past, I have verified my identity online and over the phone by answering a series of questions which I assume compared my answers to the information stored at the credit agencies. For example, the question "have you ever lived on any of these streets?" would have three or four multiple choice answers and either one was right or none. If identity theives obtained enough information in the breach then they could successfully pass this type of identity verification and the test would now be useless.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2jfbaUA