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News from the Breach Seat - September

News from the Breach Seat -
September

 

Equifax stole the cyber-attack show for September. Each day, a layer of deceit and consumer impact is peeled back to expose the biggest hack to date. The official Equifax breach news broke on September 7, driving panic and anger amongst consumers. Equifax holds confidential information like social security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal information for roughly 145 million Americans. Here is a timeline of events surrounding the Equifax security breach.

> March 2017, the Department of Homeland Security sent Equifax an alert about a software vulnerability used by an online portal. This message failed to reach the right person to perform the patch.

> July 29, 2017, Equifax discovers that they have been hacked, sometime between May and July but does not notify customers until…..

> September 7, 2017, Equifax makes a public announcement that they have been hacked and private information like social security cards, addresses, credit card numbers and other sensitive information has been compromised for all their customers.

> September 8, 2017, it is uncovered that Equifax executives sold company stock in August 2017 before the breach was announced.

> September 26, 2017, CEO Richard Smith resigns.

> September 29, 2017, Equifax opens an investigation into the executive team stock sales

> Week of October 2, 2017, former Equifax CEO Richard Smith gave three testimonies on Capitol Hill.

Equifax is working with cybersecurity firm Mandiant to complete the forensic investigation to determine which customers that have been potentially impacted. As a consumer, there are steps you should take to protect your information post-breach.

> Check your credit report by visiting annualcreditreport.com and remember to check your report on a secure network. If you see new and unrecognizable activity, visit identitytheft.gov to report suspicious activity.

> Place a credit freeze on your account. When a freeze is placed on an account, it makes opening a new account difficult for someone using your information.

> Continue to monitor your accounts closely to identify any charges you may not recognize.

> File taxes early so that you are less susceptible to someone using your social security number to get a tax refund.

There are still many unanswered questions surrounding the breach but what we do know is that the breach occurred due to a combination of human and software errors. There were and continue to be many mistakes made by the Equifax executive team resulting in a PR nightmare and continuous finger-pointing and speculation. This is yet another example of how taking cybersecurity threats seriously and responding immediately when patches are released could save you and your company.

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