[uranium235]

Just to be practical: the internet is not a magical place just one where anonymity is so practical that one can not justify a figurative brink truck failing. Moreover, it's absolutely unacceptable for institutions like Equifax to fail given the importance of identity security and the apparent lack of (or unwillingness to consider) alternatives to the social security number such as PKI; PGP for example. If you've ever seen a bitcoin paper wallet with QR codes printed on it you'll know what I'm talking about. I don't care if it's Apache Struts or PHP + mySQL they should have tested to the point of impossibility of intrusion. I think it's also reasonable to assume that the government is full of shit, and the most likely scenario is that these people in China admitted this to the government because they wanted us to know that they did it. If anything they're doing us a favor, but I still think the real solution to the problem is to stop relying so heavily on pseudo-secret identities like the social security number and to at least offer people an alternative means that uses cryptography at least for the people who care about doing things right and taking responsibility for their own security since the government can only make fraudulent guarantees that we're ever going to be safe.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I'm pretty damn sure if you use tor the right way they're not ever going to find you unless you give yourself away some other way.

[azernik]

Just because the proverbial armored car company and/or driver was negligent, doesn't mean the thief is innocent.

[uranium235]

no for sure, stealing is a dick thing to do. But I like to keep my expectations reasonable. Can I reasonably expect to carelessly leave my phone at a table in a place where crime is known to happen when I know better?