Equifax has offered free credit monitoring after its epic data breach - here’s what happened when some people tried to sign up

People are in a panic.

Like the back-to-back hurricanes this year, the theft of our personal data is increasingly catastrophic. The latest breach is courtesy of the credit bureau Equifax. The company reported that 143 million consumers’ personal data was stolen. Hackers got key information — consumer addresses, Social Security, driver’s license and credit card numbers.

Equifax is offering complimentary identity theft protection and a credit file monitoring product, called TrustedID Premier.

“Regardless of whether your information may have been impacted, we will provide you the option to enroll,” the company said.

People have tried to take Equifax up on its offer. But many have had trouble enrolling. read more »

What is at stake for Uber in U.S. bribery probe?

A U.S. bribery investigation at ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc will likely go on for a year or more and could lead to snowballing legal and compliance costs if lawyers find systemic problems.

Uber, which is the subject of a U.S. probe into whether it paid bribes oversees, has started a review of its Asia operations and notified U.S. authorities about payments made by staff to police officers in Indonesia, a person familiar with the matter has told Reuters.

The following explains the possible fallout for the company.

What is under investigation?

Uber said in August that it was cooperating with a preliminary investigation led by the U.S. Department of Justice into whether its managers violated a 1977 anti-bribery law, known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The law bars U.S. companies and some other entities from paying bribes to foreign government officials to obtain business.

How much money is at stake? read more »

CFTC files civil charges over alleged Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed civil fraud charges against a New York man and his company over an alleged Bitcoin investment scheme, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

The CFTC said it had charged Nicholas Gelfman and Gelfman Blueprint Inc with fraud, misappropriation and issuing false account statements and alleging they fraudulently solicited more than $600,000 from some 80 people between 2014 and 2016. read more »

Grassley, Leahy press Justice Department on 'whistleblower' protections

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) on Wednesday pressed the Justice Department on its progress implementing whistleblower protections at the FBI. In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Grassley and Leahy outline a series of concerns about whistleblower protections that have gone unaddressed despite government reports drawing attention to these problems and recommending changes.  The Justice Department’s own report (link is external) from 2014 identified “key systemic problems” in protecting FBI whistleblowers under agency’s current regime. read more »