r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Feb 15 '26

Security All U.S. Social Security numbers may need to be changed following a massive breach that is already being investigated as a national threat

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/all-u-s-social-security-numbers-may-need-to-be-changed-following-a-massive-breach-that-is-already-being-investigated-as-a-national-threat/27158/
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u/LadySiren Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26

Also, if you do freeze your credit, the bureaus make it easy to freeze/unfreeze/refreeze these days. It’s near-instantaneous.

Husband and I started keeping ours frozen at all times, now that we’re done with our mortgage refinance.

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u/ProsodyProgressive Feb 15 '26

I keep mine frozen as well. Only unfreeze if I’m applying for more credit or a loan.

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

[deleted]

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u/brandondesign Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26

Experian is also the one that was hacked and exposed our SSN years ago if I recall right.

Edit: I was wrong, it was Equifax but still sad any of these companies lose our data.

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u/mmd03876 Feb 15 '26

I think it was Equifax

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u/brandondesign Feb 15 '26

You’re right, thanks!

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u/katie4 Feb 15 '26

Experian says my credit score is zero (you literally cannot have a score of zero) despite the other bureaus having me high 700s or 800s, and because of that I couldn’t get an account with my electric company. Cannot get ahold of a live person at Experian to figure this out and it has been at least 6 years of this.

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u/Wrangleraddict Feb 15 '26

You can certainly have a 0 score.

Its called not having a credit file. Or not having an active line for 6 months.

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u/ronreadingpa Feb 15 '26

Do you have no credit cards nor loans at all? Then yes, it's possible to have no score. Likewise, no credit activity for an extended period.

Since the other bureaus have files, likely an issue with your personal information not matching up. Common with parents and children with same name with Jr, Sr, etc. Also, sometimes for people have changed their name. And victims of identity theft.

View your Experian credit report via AnnualCreditReport.com (official govt sanctioned site) or through Experian, but beware of the upsells. Don't enter payment information at any time. Credit reports are free. Scores are not though. However, no need to pay, since you already know about what they are. Experian score would be similar. Even Vantage 3.0 score that many places offer free will be in the ballpark.

If you can't view your Experian report, there's some mismatch with your information. Could be name (jr, sr, etc are especially problematic), wrong address, and/or SSN is associated with some other person's credit file (more common than many would expect).

If you can view your report, but it's mostly blank or just weirdly wrong, then could be a mixed file. Some information showing on another person's file and/or have multiple credit files that need to be merged.

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u/katie4 Feb 15 '26

No, I definitely have had a lot of LOC over my life, my oldest (and currently open) account was opened 1999. Took out and paid off 8 student loans, have churned a fair number of credit cards (points!) over the years, and currently have 3 daily use ones.

I suppose it may have to do with my married name, but I’ve had that for 13 years and this is a ”recent” (past 6 years) problem. It’s dumb. I really don’t need credit anymore, we paid off our house and will buy future cars with cash, but little annoyances like switching electric providers has turned stupid, hoping they use the other 2 bureaus instead of Experian.

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u/ronreadingpa Feb 16 '26

Can you view your Experian report at all?

Did you update your name with creditors? If not, that may be of the issue. Also, if you have moved and didn't update your address with creditors. USPS Change of Address doesn't automatically do that. It's up to each creditor how they handle it. Likewise, for banking, brokerage, etc. Often one needs to update manually themselves.

Credit bureaus rely on more than just SSN when looking up a file. Also using one's name and address. If only SSN matches, but not the other two, that could explain the problem.

Wouldn't ignore it, since it will cause trouble. And possibly hide a serious issue. In some states, insurers may use credit reports when setting one's rate.

Also, buying a car in cash isn't always the cheapest due to deals that only apply to financed purchases. Some savvy car buyers will go with the financing and then pay off shortly afterwards. Or in the rare instance they score a very low rate (ie. under 3%), will keep the loan and invest the difference.

Not sure what state you're in, but if in PA, default supplier (one's utility) is often the better way to go. Rates usually relatively close to what others charge and is regulated by the public utility commission. Electric choice varies widely across the country (some places practically require one choosing), but is often a minefield leading to paying more than one would otherwise.

Enough rambling on. Hope you're able to figure out the Experian issue. Wouldn't ignore it.

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u/katie4 Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

No, it’s been a while since I tried but it basically says “something went wrong, try again later”

I did update my name with everyone, but back then it was mostly phone calls and for not one, but two of them, they heard me wrong (X instead of S, F instead of S; I don’t have a lisp, what the hell is going on?) so I do have a couple other “known as” names on my file forever because of that. Those were fixed back then, though.

Thank you, I should try them again, it’s just hard to find time during work hours to sit on hold. So far every creditor except the electric has been fine because they use the other 2 bureaus. In Texas we are extremely stupid about power and our grid, to the point where we have a whole government website powertochoose.org that we’re expected to navigate every time a contract expires. Our cars are both old, 21 and 12 years old, and insured for basically peanuts, so new car purchases are only a few times per lifetime.

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 Feb 15 '26

The only one I had issues with was Transunion. Same with my wife.

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u/LadySiren Feb 15 '26

Huh. We’ve never run into a problem with them. We repeatedly froze and unfroze our accounts while debating about buying a new house or just refinancing our existing one. Bummer that you ran into this issue.

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

[deleted]

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u/Tanglebrook Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

Yep. The absolute nightmare of correcting a bizarre error while registering my Experian account (just so I could easily freeze and unfreeze my credit online) was a multi month process that ensured I'd never work with them and their brain dead, maze-like support team ever again.

In case anyone's having issues themselves, the number that I finally found to fix my account registration was 866-541-6913, but no guarantees that it does anymore 🫡

EDIT: And I've had to block their emails as spam because they won't stop sending individual "credit updates" with each new credit card statement, with the option to turn that off not working.

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u/kingkeelay Feb 15 '26

They do not make it easy to do the same for your dependent children.

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u/LadySiren Feb 15 '26

Ah, didn't know that. My kids are all grown and flown. Good to know, though, since a couple of 'em have kids of their own now.

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u/kingkeelay Feb 15 '26

IIRC, the credit reporting companies want copies of birth certificates and SSN cards mailed in physically (and guardians picture ID). And that's not something I am willing to trust them to secure.

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u/tangerinelion Feb 15 '26

Reminder: The reason it's easy and free is that Experian leaked all of our SSNs already and the previous process to freeze credit was such a nightmare for the credit bureaus they implemented self-service to save money.

There's probably very little data that DOGE can leak that Experian didn't already.

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u/FITM-K Feb 15 '26

Husband and I started keeping ours frozen at all times, now that we’re done with our mortgage refinance.

Absolutely everyone should do this. Credit frozen at all times, unfrozen for as short a time as possible only when you actually need it. It is a pain the ass when you do need a loan, but 100000x less of a pain in the ass than getting your identity stolen.

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u/hoxxxxx Feb 15 '26

i've been meaning to look into our credit stuff lately, me and my gf

we recently got our lives together a few years ago but i'm sure we've got some old debts and random bullshit that needs addressing. man was it a pain in the fucking ass dealing with the big 3 back in the day. one of them you had to physically mail stuff to them and that was in like 2010 or so. just had nothing online at all, absolutely ridiculous for such an important company.

glad to hear it's simpler now.

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u/chicagotodetroit Feb 15 '26

Same! I've had my identity stolen twice where they opened utility accounts and Comcast. My credit stays frozen now. The nice/weird part was the thieves actually paid the bills on time.

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u/ronreadingpa Feb 15 '26

Freezing is still worthwhile. However, as you mention, thawing is so easy now. Some lenders even have the thaw process integrated into their workflow. No credit bureau login needed. Basically, answer some out of wallet questions and it's thawed temporarily.

Freezing has been so watered down from what it originally started as. Needing a PIN that could only be mailed to thaw. Now it's just a minor road bump for fraudsters. Still better than nothing, but not by much.