@skippy said:
Yes, disclosing the information is usually a good thing, but for things like this I would rather the gov't keep it under wraps.
As someone whose information (and that of my ex and my 8 year old daughter) is most likely amongst that that was lost, I'd very much rather they didn't keep it quiet.
Now that we know, yes there's going to be a treasure hunt for it, *if* someone doesn't already have it. But if someone *does* have it and uses it to commit fraud, at least we know, and the banks are prepared for the possibility. That should make it that bit easier to convince them that activity on your account that you don't recognise is fraudulent.
For what it's worth, I use my bank's telephone banking service to transfer money to another account occasionally (the internet banking service takes 4 working days while the phone service is instantaneous; go figure...). The last few times I've done this, as well as the usual security questions I've been put on hold for a few moments while they "perform routine security checks" on my account. I wonder if that new extra step is because of this...