Equifax: Lessons From an Avoidable Cyber Security Breach Disaster

What Happened to Equifax?

Equifax recently revealed that highly sensitive personal and financial information for around 145 million U.S. consumers was compromised in a cybersecurity breach that began in late spring due to an IT vulnerability. There are only around 125 million households in the U.S. The breach included sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers.

What was the Equifax IT Vulnerability?

The reported vulnerability that attackers exploited to access Equifax’s system was in the Apache Struts web-application software, a widely used enterprise platform. But as subsequent coverage of the incident has unfolded, it has become clear that Equifax had institutional problems maintaining systems in a secure state. To top it off, the attackers had access to the network for a long period of time and left plenty of clues that they were there, none of which were detected until much later.

How to Avoid an Equifax Disaster?

Anti-virus and Firewalls are no longer enough to keep the bad guys out. Companies must now take the proactive measure of locating and remediating their IT vulnerabilities within their networks, devices, proprietary applications and other IT assets. To do this, you must engage a cyber security professional with the knowledge of current global cyber threats and the talent to simulate an attacker, enabling you to strengthen your cyber security posture.

Here are some quick cyber security breach facts:

• There are 1.5 million attacks every year, 4,000 attacks every day, 170 attacks every hour and nearly 3 attacks every minute in the US.
• The average consolidated total cost of a corporate data breach grew from $3.8 million to $4 million last year alone.
• Us cyber-attacks are costing businesses $400 to $500 billion a year and is quickly becoming the reason executive jobs are lost.
• 60% of small to mid-sized companies go out of business within six months of a cyber-attack.
• Because insurance companies are still attempting to understand the cyber security space, there are many gaps in cyber security insurance coverage.

OnDefend is your Solution

OnDefend’s Vulnerability Management Services identifies, quantifies and prioritizes vulnerable assets within your IT environment that can be successfully exploited by a cyber-attack. Additionally, OnDefend provides remediation solutions to help resolve these vulnerabilities efficiently and effectively.

Find and fix your vulnerabilities before the bad guys do. Its fast, its easy and affordable!

OnDefend strengthens the security postures of companies across the US. Contact us now to get a quote.

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