As we previously said, the Equifax breach affects approximately 143 million Americans. While the hackers stole data that includes addresses, birth dates, full names and Social Security numbers, there are steps you can take today that will protect you from an identity theft worst-case scenario.
Assume the hackers stole your data
While no one wants to be in a situation where personal information was exposed,… More
Incident of the Week: in our first double feature, we report on the recent breach announced at the University of North Carolina and the plea agreement reached with one Massachusetts inmate who hacked the prison computer system while still behind bars.
As has been recently reported, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have announced that they have uncovered a method to accurately predict the Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of individuals by simply knowing two of the most basic and widely-available facts about people today: their dates of birth, and their States of birth. In their paper titled “Predicting Social Security Numbers from Public Data” (.pdf), researchers Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross warn that they have uncovered a distinct and identifiable statistical pattern across SSNs of deceased persons –… More