Does John Oliver ever pull punches? Heck no, and that’s why I like the guy. If he’s got something to say he’s going to say it and he won’t hold back a single inch. This time he’s taking on Equifax, a major credit reporting firm, and the punches fly hard and straight as he goes into a great amount of detail on the big flub that Equifax not only suffered by failed to report for six weeks until they’d finally ‘sorted things out’.
So it takes six weeks to sort out the fact that there’s an information leak, a serious breach that could upset the credit of millions upon millions of people? That sounds less than optimal. Oh but of course three high-ranked executives had time to unload a good deal of Equifax stock before the company went public with news of the breach, so there’s that. I mean really, we need to give the guys at the top a chance to pull their own butts out of the fire before we start worrying about our own, right? I really wish sarcasm carried over better in terms of writing, but I’m doing what I can.
Anyway, now that the mess with Equifax is still on our minds the issue that the affected individuals have to deal with is how they keep their credit from being wrecked for the rest of their life. Equifax has obviously proven to be less than trustworthy from their end, so maybe LifeLock is the way to go. There’s just one problem. The profits that go into LifeLock are shared by another company you might remember, Equifax. That’s right, the same company that so many people don’t trust any longer is actually being funded in part by the company that supposedly keeps your information from being stolen. Isn’t that a nerve-rending thought?
Plus, LifeLock has been having its own issues since their own security has been anything but stellar lately. They’ve endured breaches as well, not the least of which was their former CEO whose number was boldly and brazenly flashed on the side of a truck during commercials. Did he really think that hackers would take that slight sitting down? Well, technically they did but metaphorically they rose up and gave him the most vicious pimp slap this side of Hollywood. He got nailed and unprecedented 13 times as his number was taken again and again and used against him in ways that he probably never saw coming.
And that’s the company that people want to turn to in order to protect their identity.
At this point freezing your credit is about all you can do to keep it from being used by others that might want to damage your chance of ever taking out a loan for a home, a car, or anything else you might need. Hackers have proven their point that they can get to anyone, but Equifax and LifeLock have both proven that while they’re supposed to be caring about people’s information and doing all that they can to keep it safe, they’re about as useful as an aged, out of weight security guard that would rather be napping or watching TV than doing their job.
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