chema@rinzewind.org
Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2018 17:55:32 -0400
These days I have been reading "Creditworthy: A History of Consumer
Surveillance and Financial Identity in America". It is an excellent study of
how the credit bureau / data broker industry started in the United States of
America.
I was amused by the inclusion of the following news item, which could have been published yesterday:
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/22/business/credit-file-password-is-stolen.html
"Credit File Password Is Stolen", New York Times, June 22nd, 1984.
A password that could permit access to the credit histories of 90 million
people was stolen and posted on an electronic bulletin board, TRW
Information Systems said yesterday.
[...] TRW, the nation's largest credit reporting company, said its files had
been breached by someone who stole a password from a Sears, Roebuck &
Company store on the West Coast. The credit company said it changed the
password immediately after being told of the breach by an informant two
weeks ago.
The password could have been illegally used for a month, at most, and
probably a week, said Geri L. Schanz, a TRW spokesman. She said there was no
indication that merchandise was illegally charged. A preliminary examination
of the Sears account determined no unusual activity; a store is billed each
time its password is used and billings have not been higher than normal.
Miss Schanz added that the intruders would not have been able to change
information on the computer files.
But TRW is conducting an intensive investigation to find out who breached the system and how. Ernest L. Arms, a spokesman for Sears in Chicago, said his company was ''concerned'' about the TRW incident, but he would supply no further details.
Computer experts yesterday said the breach again raises the issue of whether the nation's companies and consumers are adequately protected.
Yes, it definitely raised the issue.
Jos