About data security

Data breach; just a couple years ago Lowes offered huge cash up front deal for taking out a Lowe's credit card. Seemed like a good idea as there was a big ticket item we needed. upon applying for the card (800+ credit score) oddly it was denied. Apparently Experian, one of the score keepers informed us that I'm dead. Fortunately some attorneys work the system & make credit bureaus pay for their mistakes. It cost Experian 4 figures for there goof.

 

Oddly enough how some things will ding your credit, like closing out a credit card .... LOL

https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/money/does-closing-credit-card-hurt-credit-score#:~:text=Closing%20a%20credit%20card%20can%20increase%20your%20credit%20utilization%20ratio,dip%20in%20your%20credit%20score.

 

And some irresponsible companies aid and abet the data thieves as much as they can:

"AT&T security breach affects millions. Here's what to know | AP News

"While the data surfaced on a hacking forum nearly two weeks ago, it closely resembles a similar data breach that surfaced in 2021 but which AT&T never acknowledged, said cybersecurity researcher Troy Hunt.

AT&T said it has begun notifying millions of customers about the theft of personal data recently discovered online.

The telecommunications giant said Saturday that a dataset found on the “dark web” contains information such as Social Security numbers for about 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former account holders.

The company said it has already reset the passcodes of current users and "will be" (implying it is not currently communicating) communicating with account holders whose sensitive personal information was compromised.

It is not known if the data “originated from AT&T or one of its vendors,” the company said in a statement. The compromised data is from 2019 or earlier and does not appear to include financial information or call history, it said. In addition to passcodes and Social Security numbers, it may include email and mailing addresses, phone numbers and birth dates."

Once again AT&T got caught - just like during the recently service outage-and had to fess up and finally take action!

 

Good luck getting honest forthright information from AT&T- our only chance is for the Feds to get involved again and put AT&T under the bright lights and start turning the screws to them.

AT&T won’t say how its customers’ data spilled online | TechCrunch

Data Dump Allegedly Tied to 70 Million AT&T Customers Leaks Online | PCMag

Criminals claim to leak 70M+ AT&T files online • The Register

Ever wonder about the constant flood of telemarketer calls about internet or cable providers service- how they got your number and information?

 

we're waiting to hear from att, it's a nightmare

 

Meh.
Bad news, like leftovers and visiting relatives never gets better over time.
Big Bell would DO WELL by adopting a "fess up when you mess up" policy, but far be it from me to be in a position of giving them advice.
We live in a post-divestiture world, so if you don't like one giant monster mega phone company, there are alternatives.
I stopped flopping and twitching about data breaches after 2015 when it was revealed that all of my(and everyone else's) SF-86 (Security Clearance) data and background investigation info was scraped and airdropped to the ChiComms.
Such files are a motherload of information going all the way back to kindergarten - but I do not imagine that I am significant enough to warrant the curiosity to read those files.
Most people give their data away for free.
My Credit score is well above 800 and I get very little junk mail that isn't addressed to 'Resident.' The current economic shape of our nation means that I'm not going to be shopping for a load anytime soon.
The only reason I keep tabs on my credit score is that if you live on free soil a good credit score means lower insurance rates, and if I have to look for another job it will also become less trivial a thing.

 

we've been looking at alternative cell carriers, but that doesn't help with the current situation.
i think we need a new way to sign up for things that doesn't include personal and financial info.

 

Hopefully starlink will someday undercut all their pricing & the greedy other guy networks will get financially buried.

 

That means that, like me, your data was in the scrape.
Also like me, you don't give a rats because there are probably about a million pieces of paper out there with your SSN and DOB on them.
The headlines were somewhat muted, but the story did break.
Had it happened two years later it would have been above the fold in 6-inch headlines, but that's the nature of politics these days.

I liked the government side better than the civilian side.
I wasn't very popular with the union hacks when I left Uncle and started working for Ma Bell - since I know what labour looks like in the military, as a private contractor, and now as the victim of a union contract - but there are two genuine advantages of the latter.
There is a lot less neck-biting and backstabbing in a union shop because I get paid the same whether I'm a high performer or I just barely meet the absolute minimum standard.
The other advantage is that I made enough money to offer my sweet spouse a promotion to full-time CFO.

My own sweet bride had an SF-86 too and she was a military spouse so she understood about compartments.
She never asked where I was calling from and remained deliberately incurious about what, when, where, why, and with whom until I finally retired from the reserves in 2012 - as these things go it was also the year my final security reinvestigation was adjudicated.

 

Im glad you think non union owners become kind and thoughtful and give raises based on performance. In the real world my association with being “exempt” meant when the union folks got a raise, then I got one because that wouldn’t look good for non union promoters. Actually it was the exempt staff who were the laziest. I don’t think people realize unions don’t prevent firing for under performing. I had to fire a man who was union and it was more difficult, but he got fired in the end. The difference is it was fair firing based on facts. Non union if the owner doesn’t like what you said at a party, out you go, two week notice.

 

When I was an exempt employee ALL of my raises were based on performance.
Why else would you give somebody more money to do the same job?

Um..... OK.
You and I differ on this point. I'm a non-exempt person in a union shop at present, and while I could cite NUMEROUS examples to the contrary they would be a sample set of one person's experiences.

Another difference in our opinions.
I do not believe that people are fungible.
I believe that you can make yourself more 'fireproof' by being valuable enough NOT to be fired because "of something you said at a party." I also would not happily work for a company that would fire a person over a personal disagreement 'at a party' but then again I'm very picky about where I work.
When I chose to work at my present job it was after a two-part interview process.
THEY had to be an acceptable company to work for.

Granted.....I absolutely LOVE working in a union shop!
I COULD lope along at about 30% throttle and STILL be asbestos coated....AND get paid the same amount of money as the person who offers their best performance for the same coin.
Many do, and I'm continuously amazed by the dedication of my co-workers and proud to work for my team.
This is because of something that I'm not going to try to explain herein......especially to somebody who thinks that people are just interchangeable pieces parts that should all be paid 'equally.'
I actually paid union dues for over 20 years - at the non-Beck rate because I live on free soil and because I thought it was the right thing to do.
I've since been disabused of that naive notion.

Anyway - back to our regularly scheduled thread, data breaches(*) already in progress......

BOTH mentioned above having been caused by 'exempt' employees in a union shop......

 

If any of you reading are not a computer person ot knows much of computer and UNIX history, this will surely be a super boring post, so I'll keep it short.
Anyone want to talk about indemnification related to data breach, or has ever wondered what it is or what it's used for, or how it's worded in most terms of service agreements that most of us never read?
(I wouldn't make any further assumptions about other peoples behavior in regards to an indemnification clause)
It plays a part in every data breach I've ever heard of. and probably some I'll never know about. even possibly ones that may include my name near the top of the list.

I got my first exposure to indemnification around the turn of the century during the SCO vs IBM case about ownership rights of specific UNIX source code, so the story goes.
I was running Windows 2000, Solaris x86 ver. 8, and turbo linux cli on computers I built from parts at that time.

I can't find a simple explanation for it so I wouldn't include a link, but anyone that wants more info can find tons of legal stuff about it by searching indemnification clause.

It also may encompass Anti Trust and Defense if one remembers A&T 1982, depending on how far down the rabbit hole the rabbit tracks lead.

 

Study up on history of unions in America and what they were for, and what it was like before unions. Look at it fairly. It is not true a loafer can’t be fired. But it is still true in many non union jobs the owner can fire for no reason other than their say so. Too old now, too sick, don’t like what you said, bye bye. My son needs your job and you are too old. Two week notice. Might as well be China.

 

Couple decades ago at Disney there's this one VERY slothful welder who couldn't be fired because of Union rules. Quite crafty how they got rid of 'im eventually. They had to lay off 3 other welders so that by seniority they could then lay off the slothful one. They dared not fire him because he fell into a protected class. Once he had been laid off for a full year they could then rehire anyone they wanted to. Lots of overtime in the meantime.
.

 

You mean pre-OSHA, pre-FLSA, pre-NLRB, and pre-FMLA?
I don't have to 'study' because I have a pre-1980's high-school knowledge of US history.

That's a false binary laced with straw-man arguments that SHOULD be beneath you.
My supervisor has nine pelts on his office wall.
He's not proud of this but I'm VERY WELL acquainted with the fact that you CAN still fire somebody in a union shop in the US if they get drunk on the job, steal from a customer, carry a firearm on the job and show it off to a customer, view porn on a company computer, and buy lap dances with your company credit card - or just plain suck at your job - all actual instances of unions defending actual employees that were actually if eventually fired.
Working in a union shop means it's just a lot harder to do.
Actually more than one of these actual examples above cited were offered a chance to resign in lieu of being terminated for cause.
IYKWYKW.

I actually believe that unions ARE useful for utilities in that they provide for workforce stability but the cost is a marked reduction in innovation and flexibility. I also believe that utilities (and co-ops) have no business being LLCs or publicly traded corporations - but that's me being me again. I know all of this because I HAVE been an exempt person in a free shop and I'm currently a non-exempt employee in a union shop - albeit on free soil.