[jstarfish]

Not really conjecture:

> The company has found no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases.

Since core business was unaffected (nobody hacked the mainframe), I guarantee you some crappy product they acquired got compromised.

And like it or not, you do give them permission to collect your personal data every time you authorize a creditor, utility or employer to run a credit check. Never sign up for utilities, loans, credit cards or get a job and then you'd have a case for privacy.

[acdha]

It could also be related to how they sell things. Given how commonly they redistribute this data I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be something like a customer portal where they can say it wasn't core because the attacker couldn't have altered data, etc.

[ewhanley]

Oh, good, it wasn't their _core_ business. What a bullshit copout - you acquire a company, you own it, warts and all. Who's worse, the crappy company or the company that acquires it and continues to operate it without fixing it?