Re:The OPM Data Breach [pdf]
by oneplane on Friday September 09, 2016 @04:29AM
(#12460444)
In the US, most things are based on credit and not on actual money you have. If your credit is bad you can't do basic things like get a car, a house or a loan. If your identity is stolen someone else can do things in your name, and for example not pay back a loan. This causes your credit rating to sink, on top of the other problems (like people coming to your house because you didn't pay them).
If you check out http://money.visualcapitalist.com/all-of-the-worlds-money-an... you can see the derivatives and debt are a huge chunk of the not-actual-money part of the economy, which one way or the other is based on credit, credit ratings or ratings in general.
While this probably doesn't scale back to 1 person's identity, it does show that having someone mess with your credit is a whole lot worse than someone just stealing some money.
Re:The OPM Data Breach [pdf]
by biafra on Friday September 09, 2016 @05:23AM
(#12460622)
I get that credit scores are important. They are also in Germany. But what does credit protection do? Pay all the debts? Fix my score with all rating agencies?
Re:The OPM Data Breach [pdf]
by enkid on Friday September 09, 2016 @07:01AM
(#12461011)
It monitors your credit score for unusual lending to stop fraud. Normally, they also include insurance to cover any fraudulent activity associated with your identity.
If you check out http://money.visualcapitalist.com/all-of-the-worlds-money-an... you can see the derivatives and debt are a huge chunk of the not-actual-money part of the economy, which one way or the other is based on credit, credit ratings or ratings in general.
While this probably doesn't scale back to 1 person's identity, it does show that having someone mess with your credit is a whole lot worse than someone just stealing some money.