Living With Brian Cassin – CEO, Experian

I have to change my address again. I don’t like where Bank of America has moved me to so I am going to move to 475 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. I hear that they have really nice digs there.

Following my discovery of  an issue with a link on the Equifax website I decided to return to what I set out to do in the first place - get my mailing address corrected on my Experian credit report. How hard could that be?

This is where the unholy collusion of creditors and credit reporting agencies makes a blatantly unabashed public appearance. The answer to “how hard could it be?” is “it is surprisingly hard.”

Any creditor can report a change to your mailing address, your gender, your age, your marital status, etc., and Experian will change it and you cannot contest it. Your creditor has to change the information for you. If your creditor will not (or cannot) change it then you are "attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis."

In this case Bank of America has explicitly told me that they have no idea where the incorrect information is in their systems. The address is correct in my online profile, just not in the system that reports to Experian.

Nobody knows how many millions of Americans have incorrect personal information on their credit reports. Experian has no idea because there is no data validation. Consumers do not know because changes are made secretly, and even when they are discovered, there is no recourse.

Even with free annual credit reports, falsified information can easily persist for months on end unless a person pays the ransom to see their credit reports more frequently. Changes to personal information should be proactively reported to the consumer. Equifax proactively tipped me off to the Experian issue.

At Experian incorrect financial reporting can be contested. Correct financial reporting can be contested. Incorrect personal information is off limits. Just one more slip of the keyboard at Bank of America and I will be a 21 year old, Native American woman, living in Finland and married to Brian Cassin. Granted that is an unlikely scenario since Finland is too cold for me.

I asked Experian “If Bank of America reports my address as being the address of Experian’s corporate headquarters, will you change it to that?” The response was “Yes, if that is what a creditor reports then that is what will be on your credit report.” Unlike Experian, changing my address online at Bank of America is simple! I think this will be the start of a beautiful friendship. I am moving in with Brian Cassin at the posh Experian headquarters.

 I know where I will live; you only think you know where you live.

Please send your best wishes to me on my move to the Experian headquarters by post at:

Randy Abrams
C/O Brian Cassin CEO
Experian
475 Anton Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Randy Abrams
Independent Security Analyst just trying to find his home.

VirusTotal, Equifax, and Antimalware Products

There is a subtle precision in the statement “VirusTotal only showed three antimalware scanners detecting malware.” If you think that means only three scanners on VirusTotal detected the malware, then read it again more carefully; that is not what it says and that is not what it means.

Before I continue to talk about VirusTotal mythology, there are a few things I would like to clarify concerning my find of a malicious link on the Equifax website.

• The site was not hacked, but as stated in the title of my blog, it was compromised. There is a difference; there were no exploits, no backdoors, etc.
• There was no malware and there were no malicious pages on the site.
• There is no indication or probability that data was stolen as a result of the compromise.
• Equifax’s security team is blameless for this one. They were sucker-punched so badly by a third party who was in turn compromised.  The whole food chain was poisoned.
• Infection required two clicks, a download and an install. It was not a drive-by.
• There was a serious threat to people who clicked on the link and fell for the attack. This was really nasty malware.

I do not understand why the Experian page was down for two days. I have a theory, but I will wait for the producers of Ancient Aliens to tell me what some people believe before I publish.

Speaking of antimalware, I hope that Kim Komando will agree to write some guest blogs under the pen name “Auntie Malware.” How cool would that be? But I digress. At the 2017 Virus Bulletin Conference in Madrid Spain I presented VirusTotal tips, tricks, and myths. I believe the full presentation will be available soon. The content of the presentation was submitted to my friends at VirusTotal to validate accuracy. I am going to do a series of blogs about VirusTotal mythology.

There are multiple reasons why one cannot assume that only the scanners that display detection on VirusTotal are the only ones that have detection of the threat. Just as importantly you cannot assume that if the scanner you did not display detection of the threat you were not protected.

VirusTotal uses command-line versions the scanners. Command-line antimalware scanner cannot be expected to perform the same way that the GUI versions do. There are undocumented switches that can boost heuristic detections to a levels not available in commercial offerings. Antimalware vendors can hide detection on VirusTotal. Sometimes you do not want the malware authors to know what you know. The commercial versions may very well have detection.

There is more to say on the subject, but for now know that “Displayed on VirusTotal” does not mean that only those scanners that display detection provide detection. Don’t forget protection; it is not the same as detection, but it matters. I know for a fact that at least one product that did not demonstrate detection offered protection. I have a very high degree of confidence that other scanners did too.
In the next series of blogs, which may not be sequential, I am going to dispel the following myths:

• VirusTotal can be used to perform comparative testing
• Detection of malware on VirusTotal means the scanner can detect it
• Lack of detection means the file is safe
• False Positive means false positive
• Detection by more scanners means better coverage
• Malicious website means malicious website

I am going end this blog by summing up VirusTotal in one neat little quote by Alan Greenspan.

“I know you think you understand what you thought I said
but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”

Randy Abrams
Independent Security Analyst
https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-abrams-ba24391/

New Equifax Website Compromise

Update: Third party analysis tends to indicates something that is conceptually the same as malvertising. Watch the video and replace Equifax with your favorite website. It happens every day throughout the world. Now it's a security training video.

I like Equifax more than Experian. TrustedID gave me the heads up that Experian had falsified personal information in my file. After verifying that Experian did in fact falsify the data (it was due to incompetence and apathy) I decided to see if the misinformation had propagated to Equifax. As I tried to find my credit report on the Equifax website I clicked on an Equifax link and was redirected to a malicious URL. The URL brought up one of the ubiquitous fake Flash Player Update screens.

For all of you voyeurs...

Seriously folks. Equifax has enough on their plate trying to update Apache. They are not going to help you update Flash.

 

I know that nobody is surprised at my find, but watching Equifax is getting to be like watching a video of United Airlines “deplaning” a passenger... It hurts.
 

And once again Equifax, all I want from you are my credit scores. Please?

https://randy-abrams.blogspot.com/2017/09/equifax-here-is-what-i-want-from-you.html

Randy Abrams - https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-abrams-ba24391/

Independent Security Analyst