Sony To Offer Free Identity Theft Monitoring 157
olsmeister writes "Several weeks after having the PlayStation Network hacked, and apologizing to users for the breach, Sony is offering $1 million in identity theft protection for users who sign up before June 18th. The protection is being offered through Debix and is called AllClear ID Plus. This appears to be some kind of custom plan especially for Sony, as their normal offerings are called AllClear ID Free and AllClear ID Pro."
Let's give away our personal info again!! (Score:5, Insightful)
So, when we sign up for this (somewhat unknown) Debix service, can we look forward to our full identities being stolen in the near future?
Rights (Score:5, Insightful)
What rights am I signing away by doing this?
Re:yeah (Score:0, Insightful)
I really can't stand some people here.
Insurance (Score:4, Insightful)
And a year for free!
I have the lifetime policy, I don't do business with them.
Re:After the facts (Score:4, Insightful)
Not like that at all. Since it's a service that attempts to deal with the results of your data being stolen, not a service that attempts to stop your data being stolen in the first place. So it's more like a damp hand towel than an umbrella in that analogy.
Re:Rights (Score:2, Insightful)
Why would someone who wants to sue SONY for incompetence want to keep using their products?
Sony users have Goldfish memory.
Re:Rights (Score:5, Insightful)
This right here is what I've been waiting to see. You know there will be a new EULA. If Sony is smart, they won't include anything like that in the EULA (the last thing they need is more bad press), but I'm definitely waiting to read a lawyer's take on the EULA before I hit accept (normally I wouldn't, but in this case you know there's going to be a dozen or so breakdowns of the whole thing...and, besides, I'm too lazy to read it myself).
We really need to rework this whole EULA agreement deal. If companies are going to bombard us with new ones on a regular basis, they need to be bulleted points confined to a one page or so document. We already spent a ton of money on these dumb consoles, we shouldn't have to be required to read a 30 page legal document every time Sony decides to patch a bug in their software.
Freeze your credit (Score:4, Insightful)
As a victim of Identity Theft, I'd recommend to the people impacted by the Sony debacle (or any other ID breach) to freeze your credit. It costs (in New York, varies in other states) $5 per credit company per person. There are 3 major companies, thus $15 per person. Of course, this fee might be waived if you are a victim of ID theft. Details (and state specific fees) can be found here: http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html
Once frozen, nobody can check your credit or open new lines of credit. If you need to allow this action (e.g. because you are buying a car or applying for a job which requires a background check), you can temporarily unfreeze your credit. You can even specify who the temporary unfreeze applies to and for how long. (For example, "Friendly Car Loans can read my credit file from May 6th through May 20th.")
Of course, the credit bureaus don't like you freezing your credit because it means you can't sign up for those "Save 5% on your purchase by opening a credit card with us today" store cards. It also means they can't sell your credit information to other companies. But, honestly, those negatives for them are just more pluses for us.
Re:yeah (Score:5, Insightful)
I think he knows that. This is Sony making a deal with a 3rd party which deals in identity theft to help out people who may be affected by the PSN hack.
Despite it being something that they should really be obliged to do after their screwup, and therefore they shouldn't be congratulated too much, it's also something that the "Sony is the devil" types around here wouldn't actually expect them to do. I think that people should at least recognise that they're doing the right thing here.
Since it seems to be official (although it could potentially be a social engineering trick by whoever hacked the network, since they presumably have the details to upload to the PSN blog, etc), and free, I probably will sign up, despite having already cancelled the card I used for PSN stuff.
ID Theft? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
What I don't understand is why everyone is so afraid of ID theft after this hack.
I'm not going to defend Sony here on any of their actions, from the reports so far it seems they really f-ed up (even though it's the actual criminal that should get primary blame), but apart from the possible CC info (which I already had replaced), what informations do(es) the hacker(s) really have? Name and Address? We do realize that for most world citizens that have the money to have bought a PS3 system, that information is already... I don't know, like everywhere? Actively being collected by hundreds if not thousands of corporations and being (legally) sold between entities throughout the world.
The only major thing is the password (though hashed, it might be retrievable with rainbow tables as I haven't read anywhere they also salted it) and the security question. Both can be a problem if you use the same one often of course. But it's not like someone has your SSN and can go open a credit in your name right? Or is it really possible in some countries to do that with just your name and address? I can't imagine, but if it is, those countries really need to rework their financial branch a.s.a.p.
Look, I'm not saying this is extremely inconvenient (cancel CC, get new one and if you didn't use a unique password / security question, change them elsewhere) and I'm pissed this happened, but being afraid of the ID theft because of this hack, seems like being afraid of dieing when you've just been stung by a bee... I'm not saying it's impossible, but seems highly unlikely. But please, if I missed something somewhere, correct me if I'm wrong.