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Hacker steals 10 years worth of data from San Diego school district | ZDNet

Officials said the hacker made off with the personal information of over 500,000 student and staff.

Source: Hacker steals 10 years worth of data from San Diego school district | ZDNet

This can’t be good. I saw this in San News Bites, and now children are effected by this, and I’m sure that this will effect these kids for years to come if they are targeted in the future.

Comments (0)

There’s an 18 year old implant still out there? Oh my

I read today an article from Trend Micro entitled Tildeb: Analyzing the 18-year-old Implant from the Shadow Brokers’ Leak and I found it of interest. It was originally posted at the 13th of December. While I have read it late, it may still be of value to you. Let me know what you think.

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6 year old girl opens phone, types in credit card to shop

Hi all, I am looking at twitter, and I just saw the following retweet by one of my followers:

Kevin Jones, RT @squidslippers: i went to a christmas party with my parents’ rich friends and their families where i witnessed a 6-year-old girl use her iphone x to type in her father’s credit card information FROM MEMORY to buy herself some makeup. i haven’t stopped thinking about it since 14 hours ago, Twitterrific for Mac

This little girl used an iphone to type in a credit card by memory, which is great for security, but do we know if any of the parents were there to supervise this transaction and approve it? If not, I would be scared too, just like the person who tweeted this which caused the retweet. Welcome to the new age of technology. Wow!

Comments (0)

Security Now, podcast 695 for Christmas Day

SN 695: Our Best of 2018
Tuesday, December 25, 2018, 1:00 PM

Security Now (Audio)

The Best of Security Now from 2018!

Hosts:
Steve Gibson
and
Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to this show at
https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now! at the
GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve’s site:
grc.com,
also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written
Spinrite 6.

Sponsor:

list of 1 items
• securitynow.cachefly.com
list end
Media files
sn0695.mp3
(audio/mpeg, 82.9 MB)

RSS

Comments (0)

What I’ve read as of late

This post covers December 11-26, 2018. I’ll try to make this a regular habit.

Hello everyone, you may find the following of value worth reading, and I’ve already read it. I’m not necessarily going to comment on anything here, and it may be included in the next or any upcoming podcast.

There’s a lot here, and I know that some of it we’ve talked about. I’ve meant to post a lot of this earlier, but neglected to do so because I’ve been sick, although I’ve been better as of late.

I’ll try to post articles that I read each day on the blog for you to chew on some of what I’ve found of interest. I may not post every one I tweet, but I’ll pick some, and although this is all of what I’ve tweeted lately, I normally tweet those that are of interest.

Found something you want discussed? Please let me know.

Comments (0)

Merryy Christmas from the technology blog and podcast

Hi all, its Christmas time, and people will be opening presents today. Please share what you got in regards to tech presents this year. I’d love to hear what you got.

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Tech podcast 300: lots of short items

RSS and Mixcloud have the podcast.

Meet a bomb threat person who also does Denial of Service attacks as the first segment talks about an article entitled Bomb Threat Hoaxer, DDos Boss Gets 3 Years which comes from Krebs on Security. We also have a braille transcription update in regards to my grade on lesson 7. I also have a landscape for the podcast, recapping the last several years, how things haven’t changed, but yet, we must press on talking about the things that must get out including breaches, and my thoughts on those too. All of this on a packed podcast. This is tentitively the last podcast of the year, unless something breaks where we need to get the info out. Until the next podcast, make it a great day.

Comments (0)

Do we know how tech savy our leaders are?

Some days ago, I read about a very interesting topic. How Internet Savvy are Your Leaders? is the question, and I’m interested in your thoughts. I believe that some people in government really try to understand what is out there, and question what is really happening. One person I keep seeing mentioned in articles is Ron Widen (not sure on spelling) and he has some great questions and writings that he’s sent to different folks depending on the situation. I think government is trying, however, I think we need to have more people asking questions if they don’t understand. I know I do. I also don’t claim to know everything, and don’t guess but could give you a thought on something with the understanding that I’m unsure. Your thoughts are welcome.

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This week’s patch tuesday articles

Hello to everyone, I’m here to pass along a couple of articles per usual in regards to Patch Tuesday. For those who don’t know, patch Tuesday was developed in the security industry as a day where people doing the work to fix computer bugs have a day where they can release patches, and IT people can have a day where they can test out the patch to see if it will cause any type of problems before they deploy the patch company wide. Krebs On Security and Trend Micro have respective articles on the subject. Trend Micro has more detail because they have the technology and resources to have to go more in depth, however, both articles are good and well written. Krebs On Security hhas one post covering the basics since Adobe started papatch Tuesday some time ago, and 2020 can’t come soon enough for Flash. Trend Micro stays on the Windows side, but yet, the article is detailed and linked to CVE’s for people who want that info. The ZDI is also part of their toolkit, and they talk about that if my memory is not failing me.

I hope that the article here is of value, and thanks for reading!

Comments (0)

Security Now, podcast 693

Security Now, podcast 693 is out. Here are the notations.

SN 693: Internal Bug Discovery
Tuesday, December 11, 2018, 6:56 PM

Security Now (Audio)

list of 8 items
• Australia’s recently passed anti-encryption legislation
• Details of a couple more mega-breaches including a bit of Marriott follow-up
• A welcome call for legislation from Microsoft
• A new twist on online advertising click fraud
• The DHS is interested in deanonymizing cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin
• The changing landscape of TOR funding
• An entirely foreseeable disaster with a new Internet IoT-oriented protocol
• Google finds bugs in Google+ and acts responsibly — again — what that suggests for everyone else
list end

We invite you to read our
show notes.

Hosts:
Steve Gibson
and
Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to this show at
https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now! at the
GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve’s site:
grc.com,
also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written
Spinrite 6.

Sponsors:

list of 3 items
• ITPro.TV/securitynow – use code: SN30
• expressvpn.com/securitynow
• canary.tools/twit – use code: TWIT
list end

RSS for security now

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Hanukkah is ending, what did you get for tech presents this year?

Hi all,

As Hanukkah comes to a close, I’m curious if you celebrated it, what you got? Since this blog and podcast is a tech related podcast, you’re welcome to feel free to submit demonstrations of your tech that you’ve gotten. Please feel free to email me, and we’ll make arrangements for delivering the file to me. I hope you’ll enjoy the tech you’ve gotten

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Fake Voice Apps on Google Play, Botnet Likely in Development

Trend Micro has this article entitled Fake Voice Apps on Google Play, Botnet Likely in Development which I’ve read. There may be people who may be interested in this, because the apps which are out there could be of value if you want to use them. The problem is that there are apps that could be a problem, and thats what this post is covering that we’re linking here. There are apps like Google Voice that can allow you to use voice to call or hangouts for video etc. and even Skype is out there too. I’m not saying that every app is terrible, however, Android has had an opportunity to clean things up and better secure their store the best they can, but seeing this, I wonder if they’re doing enough. I don’t know this for sure, but this is something that we should wonder and ponder. Thoughts?

Comments (0)

Comments on the last article

Hi.
Well in theory, if there are issues with say a criminal, and the government/ the law want to look at it I have no issue with them doing so.
I don’t have anything to hide.
Backdoors in software and hardware though, not sure if you want that to be a thing as such.
Secure accounts in all things so the government can look if they need or a way maybe then.
But firstly can you trust the government to be secure.
There have been a lot of breaches in some of our government’s systems, especially under high load where the system has spewed the wrong data to someone else.
Next, there are governments in general, look at china, even if this is not fully true.
How do you trust the government to handle it if they need your data for something and not just get it and use it for no reason what so ever.
Case in point, an article in the local paper, had some government worker get access to someone’s data or files for something.
Not content to read it, he put all sorts of garbage in the files, crimes that the person hadn’t done, etc, he was caught of course.
But there are governments that are not as transparent as ours, that could do a lot of dammage.
Next, while I am happy for the government to get access to my data when they wish they sort of do it to bits of that anyway, are they secure.
In fact, taking out all the internal issues, if I were a hacker I’d go after the governmental databases so I could pull their backdoor passwords and use them.
Especially if they had to have them stored somewhere well.
I think the only way this would work at all, was if there was a definite reason to do so.
When that eventuated, a temperary account or whatever was created.
There would have to be limits on that, when it was destroyed, it wouldn’t last for ever, if there was nothing to answer for that was destroyed immediately.
But never saved and only certain people had access.
Even if a hacker got access to it, they couldn’t or shouldn’t have the ability to change the account passwords, or even delete the account that would be done somewhere else.
You would only have access to what you needed.
Could someone do something within the loophole created.
If there were procedures on what happened and when, then there probably wouldn’t be one of those.
But its all how they are structured.
Becides all this though articles have proven that big companies like facebook and maybe others are selling the data you have put up there.
I’d imagine that government backdoors could become a valuable asset.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we get more security things to fix after supposed government servers got hacked.
The only reason most of us normal people are safe is we don’t have that much cash, hackers want businesses mainly not us.
But governments start doing that sort of thing they will be targets.
It may work, lets hope it does.
I have had various issues along the lines where government access is concerned, even though I allowed it.
Things like trying to change something with an inaccessible website, only toh ave to use the phone to make that info.
After doing so messing it up and correcting it over the phone.
The data mysteriously vanishing as well as my call to fix it.
The issues not being fixed, and its happened before.
This time, what was worse the government decided to cut off funding for me because of something.
There is a process to follow to get things back but they wanted to get me to proove myself and try to screw me over.
Luckily I was able to get some help and they decided to not persue doing that as I was over my head at that point.
It would be nice if a system like this worked to the bennifit of all consumers and governments.
But the governments rarely have a straight road on any of this.
Excluding issues inside, breaches and the like, people can make mistakes.
In my case, I allowed access to my data, it was secured it was fine.
But no one on the desk either the support switchboard and the level2 case support seemed to know much over guidelines.
Sadly thats as far as I was ever able to get to.
And while yes things got reported, no communication that anything was done.
And while I do need to give access for that data, its obvious thatcustomer service is not on the piority for those that troubleshoot.
The fact is, people want to know why you need access, then its usually ok.
Governments don’t seem to want to communicate or some of them don’t or at least clearly and regularly.
In fact, while my issues were small in comparison to if I had committed an actual offence, there have been articles again in the local paper where someone has a problem, they try to get it fixed, and the government get nasty and screw them over.
It concerns me that even with best intentions, even with the most secured vetted environment and workforce and all that we will still have issues.
Thats fine, but how many issues can the government or service handle without it overwhelming them.
Then you ask why are the government spying on everyone for no good reason.
At which point you start losing trust big time.
For me while I havn’t lost all the trust I have in the income service part of the government, I am now inclined to not take them as seriously as I once would have.
I know that they don’t want to solve issues I report to them and if things get bad, its my fault not them.
So while I will report what I must within law, its not going to be something I will do because I want to.
There are so many fishing mails, you would never know what is truth.

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Australia passes world’s first law authorizing encryption backdoors

When I read Australia passes world’s first law authorizing encryption backdoors I just had to think about this a minute. If we start allowing back doors, did Austrailia think about whether or not this would have an impact on people who would use this type of loophole within the law to do damage? I’m not trying to bash the idea that law enforcement need some way to lawfully get at data that would help cases. I think this could work if the law only allows police to do this to discover what they need in their specific cases, and there is no other way to do this. Apple makes it clear that they comply to court orders where it is lawful to do so, but they don’t respond to every single request as they would like proof of an investigation going on and the reasoning to why they should comply. I’m not sure what Google or the Android community does, but this is something we need to figure out. What are your thoughts? Please let me know.

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Security Now, podcast 692

Hi all,

I haven’t done this in awhile, I have off and on again talked about Security Now podcasts and their release. I’d like to start doing that again, and they have definitely changed the way the notes are done, so this aught to get interesting.

The name of the podcast is GPU RAM Image which is going to be discussed at the end of the program. Here are the notes.

• Another Lenovo SuperFish-style local security certificate screw up
• The Marriott breach and several other new, large and high-profile secure breach incidents
• The inevitable evolution of exploitation of publicly exposed UPnP router services
• The emergence of “Printer Spam”
• How well does ransomware pay? We have an idea now.
• The story of two iOS scam apps
• Progress on the DNS over HTTPS front
• Rumors that Microsoft is abandoning their EdgeHTML engine in favor of Chromium We also have a bit of
• A Cyber Security related Humble Book Bundle just in time for Christmas
• Some new research that reveals that it’s possible to recover pieces of web browser page images that have been previously viewed.

This sounds like its going to be a lot of fun. Did you listen to the podcast? Get links to things through the RSS feed as well s the last 10 or so episodes. Enjoy!

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Jared, Kay Jewelers Parent Fixes Data Leak

I just read this article entitled Jared, Kay Jewelers Parent Fixes Data Leak within the past week, and this is some good news that a data leak was fixed. Mistakes in programming is going to occur, and responsible disclosure is the key when it comes to this type of thing. While it was someone who meant well, I was impressed in the fact that this was fixed and no harm was done by this. As far as we know, there was no harm done, and we believe the issue is fixed. I’ve thought about this article since I read it, but I think this type of thing was done correctly. What are your thoughts?

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Apple vis is looking for voting

This post linked here links to apple vis which is looking for people to vote in the golden apples awards of 2018. Good luck!

Comments (0)

Technology podcast 299 is now available

Hi all, the technology podcast is on the RSS feed and mix cloud for everyone to enjoy. The show notes are short, but sweet.

Before I put those show notes in to the posting, the next podcast will be our 300th. What do you guys want covered for our 300th podcast? I’m probably getting a segment, I’ve got something else in mind, but what else would you want?

On this podcast, two files for braille transcription, weather stuff, and some news on the recent breaches that have come across my desk. Also, FTP and the web browsers get an update, that is, its going away.

Enjoy the podcast!

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Its phishing season, but is every day phishing season?

Lastpass has an article out that talks about phishing season. Its got basic tips to keep us all safe. It’s Phishing Season: 5 Tips to Prevent Phishing Scams was posted on the 27th of November, right after Thanksgiving. Can I just ask a question? The question is: Is every day phishing season? You always get various email, and curious minds always want to click. Some are obvious, others are not. Sometimes, the clicking could get you in to trouble, others it can’t. Sometimes opening an email can land you in trouble, most don’t.

The first tip is education. Learn what companies who send you mail is supposed to look like, most of all. Educate yourself on how people will write you on a regular basis, and if opening attachments, whether they will tell you what is attached to the message.

Step 2 is to investigate the source. Look at the email address. I’ve been getting email claiming to be from someone I’ve had contact with, but the email address isn’t theirs, it is a totally different address. This would be a sign that something isn’t right. The link in question looked suspicious and it didn’t tell me why the link was sent to begin with.

Don’t provide your personal information is tip three. Companies usually have you sign up over the phone or through a web site, not by email. I did have that practice when I started my business, but I did put in there that if you did not feel comfortable, to let me know and I would do it over the phone. Its too risky now to send information like that over email. I did it once with a company, but I knew that it would get there, even though it was risky. I only did it once.

The fourth tip is to have a plan for when something does go wrong. Its called a Remediation plan. I’ve taken steps like making sure I back up my important files to dropbox, or another service if you don’t have dropbox.

The fifth step is to leverage a password manager. Since this is a lastpass blog article, of course they’re going to say to use them. Any password manager is capable of saving information including passwords, notes, credit card information, and other notes that are sensitive in to a vault to which you can open with one password. Whether you use lastpass, or choose another one, now we need to have this in our toolkit.

Do you have any other tips? Please share.

Comments (0)

Mariot updates for Dec 6, 2018

Hi all,

Since my last post on the Mariot breach which included several different articles including one timely article from Trend Micro about the subject of breaches, Krebs on Security penned an article that I thought was pretty interesting. What the Marriott Breach Says About Security is the name of the article. It talks about companies having the idea that criminals, miscrients, or anyone with access who is angry can now get in to networks and cause havoc. It is not safe anymore for the bare minimum.

As for individuals like you and me, Bryan has something very interesting to say, and sadly, we now must accept this fact or be doomed.

TO INDIVIDUALS

Likewise for individuals, it pays to accept two unfortunate and harsh realities:

Reality #1: Bad guys already have access to personal data points that you may believe should be secret but which nevertheless aren’t, including your credit card information, Social Security number, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, address, previous addresses, phone number, and yes — even your credit file.

Reality #2: Any data point you share with a company will in all likelihood eventually be hacked, lost, leaked, stolen or sold — usually through no fault of your own. And if you’re an American, it means (at least for the time being) your recourse to do anything about that when it does happen is limited or nil.

The article goes on about what Mariot is offering, and I say this in my podcast segment which will be released soon. Its better to take the service given, than doing nothing. I think this might be a better service than just credit monitoring, as we have someone watching the underground for us to alert of trouble. That might be a step in the right direction.

On the 4th of December, a user who is effected by this breach sent me the email from Starwood and Mariot which is very generic. It will include your member number as well as a generic greeting, according to the individual who sent me the mail message.

A copy of the email, excluding the person’s name and address are below.

Fwd: Starwood Guest Reservation Database Security Incident
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Starwood Hotels

Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2018 17:51:30 +0000
Subject: Starwood Guest Reservation Database Security Incident
To:
(address removed)

Notice of Data Security Incident
[image: SPG | Starwood Preferred Guest]

California Residents | California – Español

??????? | ???? | ???? | Deutsch

Español (España) | Español (Latinoamérica)

Français (Canadien) | Français | Italiano

??? | Português (Europeu) | Português (Brasil)

??? | ???????

Dear Valued Guest,

Marriott values our guests and understands the importance of
protecting your personal information. We have taken measures to
investigate and address a data security incident involving the
Starwood guest reservation database. The investigation has determined
that there was unauthorized access to the database, which contained
guest information relating to reservations at Starwood properties* on
or before September 10, 2018. This notice explains what happened,
measures we have taken, and some steps you can take in response.

Starwood Guest Reservation Database Security Incident

On September 8, 2018, Marriott received an alert from an internal
security tool regarding an attempt to access the Starwood guest
reservation database. Marriott quickly engaged leading security
experts to help determine what occurred. Marriott learned during the
investigation that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood
network since 2014. Marriott recently discovered that an unauthorized
party had copied and encrypted information, and took steps towards
removing it. On November 19, 2018, Marriott was able to decrypt the
information and determined that the contents were from the Starwood
guest reservation database.

Marriott has not finished identifying duplicate information in the
database, but believes it contains information on up to approximately
500 million guests who made a reservation at a Starwood property. For
approximately 327 million of these guests, the information includes
some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email
address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account
information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information,
reservation date, and communication preferences. For some, the
information also includes payment card numbers and payment card
expiration dates, but the payment card numbers were encrypted using
Advanced Encryption Standard encryption (AES-128). There are two
components needed to decrypt the payment card numbers, and at this
point, Marriott has not been able to rule out the possibility that
both were taken. For the remaining guests, the information was limited
to name and sometimes other data such as mailing address, email
address, or other information.

Marriott reported this incident to law enforcement and continues to
support their investigation. The company is also notifying regulatory
authorities.

Marriott deeply regrets this incident happened. From the start, we
moved quickly to contain the incident and conduct a thorough
investigation with the assistance of leading security experts.
Marriott is working hard to ensure our guests have answers to
questions about their personal information with a dedicated website
and call center. We are supporting the efforts of law enforcement and
working with leading security experts to improve. Marriott is also
devoting the resources necessary to phase out Starwood systems and
accelerate the ongoing security enhancements to our network.

Guest Support

Marriott has taken the following steps to help you monitor and protect
your information:

Dedicated Call Center

Marriott has established a dedicated call center to answer questions
you may have about this incident. The call center is open seven days a
week, and is available in multiple languages. Our dedicated call
center may experience high volume initially, and we appreciate your
patience.

Email notification

Marriott began sending emails on a rolling basis on November 30, 2018
to affected guests whose email addresses are in the Starwood guest
reservation database.

Free WebWatcher Enrollment

Marriott is providing guests the opportunity to enroll in WebWatcher
free of charge for one year. WebWatcher monitors internet sites where
personal information is shared and generates an alert to the consumer
if evidence of the consumer’s personal information is found. Due to
regulatory and other reasons, WebWatcher or similar products are not
available in all countries. Guests from the United States who complete
the WebWatcher enrollment process will also be provided fraud
consultation services and reimbursement coverage for free.

The section below provides additional information on steps you can
take. If you have questions about this notification and to enroll in
WebWatcher (if it is available in your country), please visit
info.starwoodhotels.com.

* Starwood brands include: W Hotels, St. Regis, Sheraton Hotels &
Resorts, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Element Hotels, Aloft Hotels, The
Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts,
Four Points by Sheraton and Design Hotels. Starwood branded timeshare
properties are also included.

Best wishes,
[image]

Arne Sorenson

MORE INFORMATION ON STEPS YOU CAN TAKE

Regardless of where you reside, below are some additional steps you can take.

•
Monitor your SPG account for any suspicious activity.
•
Change your password regularly. Do not use easily guessed passwords.
Do not use the same passwords for multiple accounts.
•
Review your payment card account statements for unauthorized activity
and immediately report unauthorized activity to the bank that issued
your card.
•
Be vigilant against third parties attempting to gather information by
deception (commonly known as “phishing”), including through links to
fake websites. Marriott will not ask you to provide your password by
phone or email.
•
If you believe you are the victim of identity theft or your personal
data has been misused, you should immediately contact your national
data protection authority or local law enforcement.

If you are a resident of the United States:

We remind you it is always advisable to be vigilant for incidents of
fraud or identity theft by reviewing your account statements and free
credit reports for any unauthorized activity. You may obtain a copy of
your credit report, free of charge, once every 12 months from each of
the three nationwide credit reporting companies. To order your annual
free credit report, please visit
www.annualcreditreport.com
or call
toll free at 1-877-322-8228. Contact information for the three
nationwide credit reporting companies is as follows:

Equifax, PO Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374,
www.equifax.com,
1-800-685-1111
Experian, PO Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013,
www.experian.com,
1-888-397-3742
TransUnion, PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016,
www.transunion.com,
1-800-916-8800

If you believe you are the victim of identity theft or have reason to
believe your personal information has been misused, you should
immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission and/or the Attorney
General’s office in your state. You can obtain information from these
sources about steps an individual can take to avoid identity theft as
well as information about fraud alerts and security freezes. You
should also contact your local law enforcement authorities and file a
police report. Obtain a copy of the police report in case you are
asked to provide copies to creditors to correct your records. Contact
information for the Federal Trade Commission is as follows:

Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Response Center, 600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20580, 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338),
www.ftc.gov/idtheft

If you are a resident of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, North
Carolina, or Rhode Island, you may contact and obtain information from
your state attorney general at:

Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, 55 Elm Street, Hartford, CT
06106,
www.ct.gov/ag,
1-860-808-5318

Maryland Attorney General’s Office, 200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD
21202,
www.oag.state.md.us,
1-888-743-0023 or 1-410-576-6300

Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, One Ashburton Place,
Boston, MA 02108,
www.mass.gov/ago/contact-us.html,
1-617-727-8400

North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, 9001 Mail Service Center,
Raleigh, NC 27699,
www.ncdoj.gov,
1-919-716-6400 or 1-877-566-7226

Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, 150 South Main Street,
Providence, RI 02903,
www.riag.ri.gov,
1-401-274-4400

If you are a resident of Massachusetts or Rhode Island, note that
pursuant to Massachusetts or Rhode Island law, you have the right to
file and obtain a copy of a police report. You also have the right to
request a security freeze.

If you are a resident of West Virginia, you have the right to ask that
nationwide consumer reporting agencies place “fraud alerts” in your
file to let potential creditors and others know that you may be a
victim of identity theft, as described below. You also have a right to
place a security freeze on your credit report, as described below.

Fraud Alerts: There are two types of fraud alerts you can place on
your credit report to put your creditors on notice that you may be a
victim of fraud—an initial alert and an extended alert. You may ask
that an initial fraud alert be placed on your credit report if you
suspect you have been, or are about to be, a victim of identity theft.
An initial fraud alert stays on your credit report for at least 90
days. You may have an extended alert placed on your credit report if
you have already been a victim of identity theft with the appropriate
documentary proof. An extended fraud alert stays on your credit report
for seven years. You can place a fraud alert on your credit report by
contacting any of the three national credit reporting agencies.

Credit Freezes: You have the right to put a credit freeze, also known
as a security freeze, on your credit file, free of charge, so that no
new credit can be opened in your name without the use of a PIN number
that is issued to you when you initiate a freeze. A security freeze is
designed to prevent potential credit grantors from accessing your
credit report without your consent. If you place a security freeze,
potential creditors and other third parties will not be able to get
access to your credit report unless you temporarily lift the freeze.
Therefore, using a security freeze may delay your ability to obtain
credit.

There is no fee to place or lift a security freeze. Unlike a fraud
alert, you must separately place a security freeze on your credit file
at each credit reporting company. For information and instructions to
place a security freeze, contact each of the credit reporting agencies
at the addresses below:

Experian Security Freeze, PO Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013,
www.experian.com

TransUnion Security Freeze, PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016,
www.transunion.com

Equifax Security Freeze, PO Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348,
www.equifax.com

To request a security freeze, you will need to provide the following
information:

1.
Your full name (including middle initial as well as Jr., Sr., II, III, etc.)
2.
Social Security number
3.
Date of birth
4.
If you have moved in the past five years, provide the addresses where
you have lived over the prior five years
5.
Proof of current address such as a current utility bill or telephone bill
6.
A legible photocopy of a government issued identification card (state
driver’s license or ID card, military identification, etc.)
7.
If you are a victim of identity theft, include a copy of the police
report, investigative report, or complaint to a law enforcement agency
concerning identity theft

The credit reporting agencies have one business day after receiving
your request by toll-free telephone or secure electronic means, or
three business days after receiving your request by mail, to place a
security freeze on your credit report. The credit bureaus must also
send written confirmation to you within five business days and provide
you with a unique personal identification number (“PIN”) or password
or both that can be used by you to authorize the removal or lifting of
the security freeze.

To lift the security freeze in order to allow a specific entity or
individual access to your credit report, or to lift a security freeze
for a specified period of time, you must submit a request through a
toll-free telephone number, a secure electronic means maintained by a
credit reporting agency, or by sending a written request via regular,
certified, or overnight mail to the credit reporting agencies and
include proper identification (name, address, and Social Security
number) and the PIN number or password provided to you when you placed
the security freeze as well as the identity of those entities or
individuals you would like to receive your credit report or the
specific period of time you want the credit report available. The
credit reporting agencies have one business day after receiving your
request by toll-free telephone or secure electronic means, or three
business days after receiving your request by mail, to lift the
security freeze for those identified entities or for the specified
period of time.

To remove the security freeze, you must submit a request through a
toll-free telephone number, a secure electronic means maintained by a
credit reporting agency, or by sending a written request via regular,
certified, or overnight mail to each of the three credit bureaus and
include proper identification (name, address, and Social Security
number) and the PIN number or password provided to you when you placed
the security freeze. The credit bureaus have one business day after
receiving your request by toll-free telephone or secure electronic
means, or three business days after receiving your request by mail, to
remove the security freeze.

Fair Credit Reporting Act: You also have rights under the federal Fair
Credit Reporting Act, which promotes the accuracy, fairness, and
privacy of information in the files of consumer reporting agencies.
The FTC has published a list of the primary rights created by the FCRA
(
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0096-fair-credit-reporting-act.pdf),
and that article refers individuals seeking more information to visit
www.ftc.gov/credit.
The FTC’s list of FCRA rights includes:

•
You have the right to receive a copy of your credit report. The copy
of your report must contain all the information in your file at the
time of your request.
•
Each of the nationwide credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian,
and TransUnion – is required to provide you with a free copy of your
credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.
•
You are also entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse
action against you, like denying your application for credit,
insurance, or employment, and you ask for your report within 60 days
of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name,
address, and phone number of the credit reporting company. You are
also entitled to one free report a year if you’re unemployed and plan
to look for a job within 60 days; if you are on welfare; or if your
report is inaccurate because of fraud, including identity theft.
•
You have the right to ask for a credit score.
•
You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information.
•
Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete inaccurate,
incomplete, or unverifiable information.
•
Consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information.
•
Access to your file is limited. You must give your consent for reports
to be provided to employers.
•
You may limit “prescreened” offers of credit and insurance you receive
based on information in your credit report.
•
You may seek damages from violators.
•
Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel have
additional rights.

If You Are A European Union Data Subject, you may contact or obtain
information from your Data Protection Authority at:

That completes the email. Other languages were removed.

The email here is right on providing lots of information and what people can do. With the GDPR now in effect, notification of a breach will now be the key, and this is great to see. As soon as you know of an issue, notify everyone effected. Thanks for reading, leave those thoughts.

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