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Comment by dx87 | Hacker News Reader

Yep, it could be used for finding extortion targets. Just find someone with bad credit who also works for some sort of sensitive program, and now you have leverage over them.

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I don’t know what you mean by “sensitive program” but anything the federal government considers critical disqualifies people like this (even if their credit goes bad after they’re hired.)

They’re very particular about this; particular meaning polygraphs and agents talking to your family members. I know because I almost took a job like this (and know a number of people who have) but the pay and location were crap.

That happens if you work with DoD programs.

How much do you think legislative aides are scrutinized? Political party staff who aren't on the government payroll?

This is oversimplified. Anything ITAR or EAR or commercial proprietary related to tech would be prime to extract but would be worked by million(s) US persons with no further background screen beyond basic employability checks. US Gov secret and above requires lots of checks ... but the breadth of the human attack surface for commercial or ITAR technology combined with the Equifax data would in fact be an ace in the hole.

Don't forget that China dumped the OPM database and can cross correlate individuals in important places with credit issues. Foolishly poking at them is the sort of inept strategic thinking this administration is so good at.

Are you sure that the standards applied to your background checks were also applied to those of relatives of the President? If the background check system is politicized, then this kind of hacking to discover sensitive information might become even more valuable.

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