Equifax’s IT department ran a series of scans that were supposed to identify unpatched systems on March 15 there were in fact multiple vulnerable systems, including the aforementioned web portal, but the scans seemed to have not worked, and none of the vulnerable systems were flagged or patched. On March 7, the Apache Software Foundation released a patch for the vulnerabilities on March 9, Equifax administrators were told to apply the patch to any affected systems, but the employee who should have done so didn’t. If attackers sent HTTP requests with malicious code tucked into the content-type header, Struts could be tricked into executing that code, and potentially opening up the system Struts was running on to further intrusion. In that month, a vulnerability, dubbed CVE-2017-5638, was discovered in Apache Struts, an open source development framework for creating enterprise Java applications that Equifax, along with thousands of other websites, uses. To understand how exactly all these crises intersected, let’s take a look at how the events unfolded. Equifax did not publicize the breach until more than a month after they discovered it had happened stock sales by top executives around this time gave rise to accusations of insider trading.The attackers pulled data out of the network in encrypted form undetected for months because Equifax had crucially failed to renew an encryption certificate on one of their internal security tools.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 company was initially hacked via a consumer complaint web portal, with the attackers using a widely known vulnerability that should have been patched but, due to failures in Equifax’s internal processes, wasn’t.A top-level picture of how the Equifax data breach happened looks like this: General Accounting Office, and an in-depth analysis from Bloomberg Businessweek based on sources inside the investigation. Most of the discussion in this section and the subsequent one comes from two documents: A detailed report from the U.S. The Equifax breach investigation highlighted a number of security lapses that allowed attackers to enter supposedly secure systems and exfiltrate terabytes of data. Like plane crashes, major infosec disasters are typically the result of multiple failures. And the question of who was behind the breach has serious implications for the global political landscape. consumers on until December 31, 2026. These reports are included in the free weekly Equifax credit reports currently offered on through April 2021.In March 2017, personally identifying data of hundreds of millions of people was stolen from Equifax, one of the credit reporting agencies that assess the financial health of nearly everyone in the United States.Īs we’ll see, the breach spawned a number of scandals and controversies: Equifax was criticized for everything ranging from their lax security posture to their bumbling response to the breach, and top executives were accused of corruption in the aftermath. In connection with various settlements, Equifax is making at least six additional free Equifax credit reports each year available online to U.S. To opt out of such pre-approved offers, visit Entities that may still have access to your Equifax credit report include: companies like Equifax Global Consumer Solutions, which provide you with access to your credit report or credit score, or monitor your credit report as part of a subscription or similar service companies that provide you with a copy of your credit report or credit score, upon your request federal, state and local government agencies and courts in certain circumstances companies using the information in connection with the underwriting of insurance, or for employment, tenant or background screening purposes companies that have a current account or relationship with you, and collection agencies acting on behalf of those whom you owe companies that authenticate a consumer's identity for purposes other than granting credit, or for investigating or preventing actual or potential fraud and companies that wish to make pre-approved offers of credit or insurance to you. Freezing your Equifax credit report will not prevent access to your credit report at any other credit reporting agency. Placing a security freeze on your Equifax credit report will prevent access to it by certain third parties.
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