You're right, "ruin" was poetic license on my part. I was either going all-in with the outrage or I was going to delete the post and move on. I chose the former.
But think about the Anthem breech just this year. SSNs, full name, date of birth, employer and yearly income, home address. Everything you need to ruin someone's life for real, and permanently. Having to have a credit card replaced is an inconvenience. Having to constantly watch your credit because everything an attacker needs to open a new credit card in your name is ruin.
Beyond that though, little inconveniences add up. How many times do you want to have to replace your credit card in a year? And if you have an auto-payment set up but miss changing your card number for that, how much will missing that payment impact your credit score? And how many hours are you spending fighting fraudulent charges? How many years of your life are taken off by the stress of constant breaches?
Life ruining? Probably not. Life-changing? Yeah, it's getting there.
Two card changes in quick succession led to my car insurance being cancelled when they couldn't take a payment. The first I knew of it was when the blue lights came on behind me. That is firmly into ruined life territory.
No, in the UK being caught like this means a big fine, an long-term endorsement on your license and unpleasant side effects which include raised insurance premiums and not being able to get a hire car for several years afterwards. It IS actually a big deal. And it all has its roots in a bank card number changing unexpectedly.
And the point is, yes, consequences can be rather more damaging than having your Amazon Prime membership lapse.
Not having insurance is a strict liability offence
It's the same in my country.
But if you're late on payments then a normal dunning process begins. Before your insurance turns invalid you have to ignore at least 3 letters over the course of 3 months.
In the UK they just flip the switch when a single payment fails, without prior warning?
But think about the Anthem breech just this year. SSNs, full name, date of birth, employer and yearly income, home address. Everything you need to ruin someone's life for real, and permanently. Having to have a credit card replaced is an inconvenience. Having to constantly watch your credit because everything an attacker needs to open a new credit card in your name is ruin.
Beyond that though, little inconveniences add up. How many times do you want to have to replace your credit card in a year? And if you have an auto-payment set up but miss changing your card number for that, how much will missing that payment impact your credit score? And how many hours are you spending fighting fraudulent charges? How many years of your life are taken off by the stress of constant breaches?
Life ruining? Probably not. Life-changing? Yeah, it's getting there.