This Week in Credit News: Data Breaches Galore

What does a dating site, a networking social media forum and a sub shop have in common? They all reported data breaches of some sort this week.

Why is this a “credit” story? Many people use the same password for multiple online accounts, and hackers know this. The exposure of your password on LinkedIn or eHarmony could also expose your financial accounts to hackers if you use the same passwords for those accounts. Once you’ve been hacked, it’s smart to change all of your passwords. Our friends at Identity Theft 911 have five easy tips for what to do after your password has been hacked.

LinkedIn Suffers Data Breach

The biggest security story of the week is the LinkedIn data breach, which exposed millions of users’ passwords earlier this week after being hacked.

LinkedIn is sending emails to the users who had their accounts compromised, asking them to change their passwords. Preliminary reports show that more than 6 million passwords have been compromised.

Hearing on CARD Act’s Impact on Stay-at-Home Parents

Stay-at-home parents have fallen into a loophole of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) that doesn’t allow Americans who don’t have a source of income to apply for credit on their own.

However, Congress is attending to the concerns of many stay-at-home parents and holding a hearing this week to listen to testimony from experts on whether the rule should be amended to take into account this section of the American public that has been harmed by the regulation. Richard Cordray, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has said in the past that he is prepared to the review the rule as well.

Bankruptcy at 23: How I Survived It

This story has caused quite a stir across many personal finance sites. Originally published by LearnVest, this article gives some great insights not only to the financial burdens of many millenials, but also the bankruptcy process. Here’s our favorite piece from the first-person tale of credit card debt spinning out of control:

“The debt had gotten so out of control I’d have to start making well over $100,000 stat (and still live with my parents) to just get even with the creditors. All that before I could even start dealing with my student loans!”

Penn Station Sub Chain Reports Card Breach

As BankInfoSecurity.com reported, this popular sandwich chain with more than 200 stores across the country has had an issue with customers’ debit and credit card info reportedly being hacked.

Only 43 stores located in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have been identified as being affected.

Image: NS Newsflash, via Flickr