![\"Equifax](\"https:\/\/ntegrait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/ThinkstockPhotos-153180103-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bh1gzJFVFLc&w=560&h=349]<\/p>\n
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You would expect that a company \u2013 like Equifax <\/strong>\u2013 that is entrusted with vital information and tracking information of peoples purchase history would have iron-clad cybersecurity to protect its data.<\/p>\n Apparently not.<\/p>\n On September 7, 2017, Equifax came out with the truth<\/a>.<\/p>\n They had been hacked.<\/p>\n [youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bh1gzJFVFLc&w=509&h=335]<\/p>\n From mid-May through to July, cybercriminals had access to the addresses, social security numbers, drivers license numbers, and birthdates of Equifax \u201ccustomers\u201d- <\/strong>that\u2019s pretty much everyone \u2013 \u00a0in the USA, Canada, and the UK.<\/p>\n The September 7th,<\/sup> 2017 press release from Equifax states that nearly half of the population of the United States \u2013 143 million people \u2013 \u00a0have had their private information compromised by the Equifax breach<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Equifax maintains<\/strong> that relatively few Canadian and UK consumers\u2019 private information was impacted and that they are working with the Canadian and UK regulators to comply with the necessary regulations surrounding breach transparency.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the worst news\u2026<\/p>\n As part of this Equifax cyber intrusion<\/strong>, 209,000 people had their credit card information stolen, AND according to Equifax, the breach also impacted 182,000 people who had private information contained in Equifax Dispute Documents.<\/p>\n (Are you looking for professional help with securing your private or corporate data? Let the professional <\/strong>cybersecurity experts of {company} take this worry off your mind! Contact us now at {phone} or {email}<\/strong><\/p>\n The Equifax public relations <\/strong>bulletin<\/a> regarding this breach tells us that they finally discovered the intrusion and theft of consumer\u2019s private information on July 29th<\/sup>, and that following the discovery of the breach, they hired an independent cybersecurity firm to investigate.<\/p>\n That investigation apparently took a little over a month to complete, because the public wasn\u2019t informed that their private information had been compromised until the September 7th<\/sup> press release.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the official response from Equifax<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n To add insult to injury, according to TechCrunch and Bloomberg<\/a> both report that three Equifax Executives dumped a portion of their Equifax stock<\/strong>\u00a0 BEFORE the news of the breach went public.<\/p>\n TechCrunch states<\/a>, \u201cThe transactions in question were initiated<\/u> by Chief Financial Officer and Corporate VP John Gamble, who sold\u00a0$946,374 worth of shares<\/a>; President of U.S. Information Solutions Joseph Loughran, who dumped $584,099; and President of Workforce Solutions Rodolfo Ploder, who sold $250,458 in shares. As Bloomberg notes, these transactions were not pre-scheduled trades<\/u> and they took place on August 2, three days after the company learned of the hack.\u201d<\/p>\n While Equifax has come out with a statement<\/strong> insisting that these men had no knowledge of the breach at the time of the trades, it still looks more than a little fishy.<\/p>\n Well, to put it in perspective, this isn\u2019t the biggest case of a corporate entity being breached by cybercriminals<\/u>. In 2016, Yahoo disclosed<\/a> that 1.3 billion user accounts had been hacked<\/u> in two separate incidents in 2013-2014. Wikipedia records<\/a> that the criminals involved stole, \u201cnames, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers, dates of birth, and\u00a0hashed<\/a>\u00a0passwords<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n So, this kind of breach \u2013 and corporate delay in disclosure \u2013 has happened before.<\/p>\n In an effort to<\/u> calm public outrage over this breach, Equifax\u2019s CEO, <\/strong>Rick Smith said<\/strong><\/a>, \u201cI\u2019ve told our entire team that our goal can\u2019t be simply to fix the problem and move on.\u00a0 Confronting cybersecurity risks is a daily fight.\u00a0 While we\u2019ve made significant investments in data security, we recognize we must do more.\u00a0 And we will.\u201d<\/p>\n Rick Smith has a led Equifax since 2005 and has a good track record as a corporate leader and a conscientious and caring citizen. According to his Equifax bio, his \u201cis currently a trustee for The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta and has formerly been a director of the Operation HOPE global board, director of the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta, and a Trustee of the Woodruff Arts Center.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Equifax has hit some speedbumps in the rollout of their response to this crisis, it seems that the issues seem to mostly center around transparency, messaging, and public relations, not the leadership of Rick Smith.<\/p>\n Time will tell whether Equifax will be able to regain and hold on to public confidence. At the moment, their biggest statement defending their systems<\/a> is,<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em><\/strong>The company has found no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax\u2019s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Want to know more about how to protect yourself and your business from cyber crime? Contact the cyber security professionals at {company}! {phone} or {email}<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bh1gzJFVFLc&w=560&h=349] Equifax Security Breach of 143 Million Private Records Rocks Consumer Confidence and Injures Corporate Image You would expect that a company \u2013 like Equifax \u2013 that is entrusted with vital information and tracking information of peoples purchase history would have iron-clad cybersecurity to protect its data. Apparently not. On September 7, 2017, Equifax…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":158388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is Equifax doing about it?<\/h2>\n
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So, what is the average consumer supposed to make of all of this?<\/h2>\n
What should you be doing about this breach?<\/h2>\n
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