{"id":8348,"date":"2017-09-11T21:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T21:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clone4.10pearls.com\/?p=8348"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:29:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:29:05","slug":"equifax-breach-means-companys-information-security-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/10pearls.com\/uk\/blog\/equifax-breach-means-companys-information-security-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Equifax breach reveals about your security strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By now you have heard that about 1 out of every 2 Americans has had their personally identifiable information exposed thanks to the breach at Equifax. This breach is more serious than most because the information that was stolen is the data that banks, credit agencies, insurance companies (among other types of organizations) use to verify your identity when you sign up a for a credit card, apply for a mortgage, start a new job, etc.<\/strong><\/span> The criminals behind the breach have all the information necessary to perform identity theft and open lines of credit in the names of unsuspecting individuals.<\/p>

As of the writing of this article, Equifax has not disclosed the methods used by the attackers to breach their systems. I expect the breach will follow a sadly familiar pattern, the same one we saw with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Target, and Home Depot<\/strong><\/span>: First, a system is compromised, through a software flaw or malware. Often, this vulnerability should have been previously addressed with a patch or update, but the owner of the system failed to do so. Then the attacker seeks to escalate their privilege in the compromised systems, through flaws and by stealing or creating usernames and passwords. The attacker then establishes additional points of entry so that the attack can continue even if the first point of entry is discovered and closed. Finally, the attacker goes about collecting the information, and uses difficult-to-detect ways of transferring the stolen information out of the target systems.<\/p>

Massive breaches are happening so frequently that people are beginning to tune them out. However, the severity of this breach, and the fact that half of our nation\u2019s population could be affected, may change the conversation and increase the demand for secure systems. I predict that we\u2019ll see consumer skepticism and mistrust spike<\/span>.<\/strong> Many people will ask, \u201cIf a large organization like Equifax, whose very purpose is to collect and store data, can\u2019t do it right, what businesses possibly can?\u201d<\/p>

If your business exchanges information with customers digitally, now is the time to double down on your security measures and demonstrate to your customer base that you take their information security seriously:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>