What We're Reading

The graphic above shows a timeline of some of the biggest data breaches on record. Each bubble represents the number of records lost in any given breach, with the most sensitive data clustered toward the right side.

This data visualization comes to us from Information is Beautiful. Go to their site to see the highly-recommended interactive format that visualizes the same data, while providing additional details on each specific hack.

Before 2009, the majority of data breaches were the fault of human errors like misplaced hard drives and stolen laptops, or the efforts of “inside men” looking to make a profit by selling data to the highest bidder. Since then, the volume of malicious hacking (shown in purple) has exploded relative to other forms of data loss.

From Millions to Billions

Increasingly sophisticated hacking has altered the scale of data loss by orders of magnitude. For example, an “inside job” breach at data broker Court Ventures was once one o

Having worked in the mortgage field for a few decades, the scoring of FICO (or disgust of it) definitely caught my attention.  Some of the credit-scoring travesties are given.  In my opinion, they can't make changes fast enough......or merely admit you're only going to lend to the rich.  That's what it's coming down to; slowly but surely.

Naturally, lenders of all stripes have been evaluating credit for far longer than FICO (originally founded in the ’50s as Fair Isaac Co.) has existed. In fact credit rating standardization wasn’t a priority until the 1970s with the passage of the Fair Credit Reporting Act — and FICO data has only been widely available to lenders since 1987. The FICO scoring system (the 300-800) as we sort of understand it today has only existed since 1989 and it  wasn’t until 2003 that consumers had legal access to it.   

The question now, it seems, is are the days of the FICO score as the be-all, end-all consumer credit scoring standard coming to an end? Driven by al

One in 14 Americans may have just lost tons of their personal information — everything from their Social Security Number and birthdates to notes on their finances, relationships and even sexual proclivities — to hackers in a massive cyber breach, a federal agency said Thursday.

Hackers have made off with confidential data belonging to 22 million people who work, formerly worked or have applied to work for the federal government, costing a top agency official her job and exposing troves of sensitive data stored by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which serves as a sort of human resources for federal workers.

Here's a breakdown of the biggest questions — including what you should know about the attack, who is affected and what it means for you.

Which databases were hit?

While OPM has declined to say exactly which systems were affected, an agency filing in the Federal Register reveals two likely targets: the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system, which contains per