https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/04/comcast_fcbs_ransomware_theft/
Cybersecurity Month
About a quarter million Comcast subscribers had their data stolen from debt collector
- Cable giant says ransomware involved, FBCS keeps schtum
Connor Jones
Fri 4 Oct 2024 // 20:13 UTC
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Among the data types stolen were names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and the Comcast account numbers and ID numbers used internally at FBCS. The data pertains to those registered as customers at “around 2021.” Comcast stopped using FBCS for debt collection services in 2020.
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As with ALL problems, digging down for who’s at fault, eventually end at the Gooferment.
I remember n=my original Social Security card as saying in big red font all caps “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES”.
I’m sure that the tin foil hats of that era would have opposed it for either “THE MARK OF THE DEVIL” or “where is your papers please” or just the enumeration of privacy concerns. And they, like almost all Conspiracy Theorists, would have been correct. Look what a mess SSN has created.
At the root of the problem is the SSN.
Fundamentally insecure! Medicare abandoned the SSN on its own medicare cards. Never explained but probably due to fraud. Which still is a huge problem.
I suggest that the SSN be abandoned. Credit cards use a 16 digit number with error correction in it and the “secret” card code on the back. Why can’t the same be done to replace SSN.
Sure “credit reporting agencies”, banks, brokers, and all would have to retool.
So what.
No one ever voted to approve this Universal Identifier.
So let’s unvote it out.
Surely SCIENCE can come up with a better one. Maybe based on our DNA, or biometric, or maybe nothing is best.
Google and Apple now have passkeys based on their device’s “biometric”.
Even that would be better than SSN!
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FOOTNOTE: The word schtum means to remain silent. Specifically, it means not sharing any information, or telling anyone what you know. Schtum is most often used when referring to information that is harmful or sensitive in nature.
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Reinke Faces Life 