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Equifax data breach FAQ: What happened, who was affected, what was the impact?

Posted on October 14, 2019 by Dissent

We spent a good amount of time in the cybersecurity forum today talking about the Equifax breach.  Here’s a summary of some of their key failures, reported by Josh Fruhlinger and based on A  U.S. General Accounting Office’s report, and an in-depth analysis from Bloomberg Businessweek.  Here are just two of the findings, as reported by Fruhlinger:

  • The attackers were able to move from the web portal to other servers because the systems weren’t adequately segmented from one another, and they were able to find usernames and passwords stored in plain text that then allowed them to access still further systems.
  • The attackers pulled data out of the network in encrypted form undetected for months because Experian had crucially failed to renew an encryption certificate on one of their internal security tools.

Read more on CSO.

Category: Business SectorCommentaries and AnalysesHackOf NoteU.S.

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