Re:Hackers who broke into Equifax exploited a flaw in open-s...
by phkahler on Saturday September 09, 2017 @11:07AM
(#15207424)
Let's not confuse physical access to getting it over the internet.
If they stayed old-school and had their computers inaccessible except to their own people, you'd have to make phone calls, fax, and mail to do anything with them. That would be less efficient - more costly - but it would prevent the possibility of a remote attack compromising huge amounts of data.
If we move up in abstraction, if these companies didn't exist and collect all the data the danger would be completely eliminated. OTOH the banks and lenders who use their services would have to find other ways to estimate credit-worthiness and that would again... cost more.
If they stayed old-school and had their computers inaccessible except to their own people, you'd have to make phone calls, fax, and mail to do anything with them. That would be less efficient - more costly - but it would prevent the possibility of a remote attack compromising huge amounts of data.
If we move up in abstraction, if these companies didn't exist and collect all the data the danger would be completely eliminated. OTOH the banks and lenders who use their services would have to find other ways to estimate credit-worthiness and that would again... cost more.