Overview
On September 7, 2017, Equifax announced a data breach on the full range of credit information on up to 143 million consumers, full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and in some instances, driver’s license numbers. The Equifax breach appears to have taken place over a period of three months.
The extent of the data breach and the sheer number of consumers affected is going to have long term consequences and will require new methods of secure identification.
Key Concepts
Users have repeatedly accepted low or poor security in the name of easy access
The priority for users has been to have easy access, two step authentication and required password resets have been viewed as a nuisance.
One of the important ways companies protect themselves is to set up a Red Team which is a designated internal team with the goal of launching a cyber attack and penetrating the company’s network.
Many of the most successful attacks take a “low and slow” approach, taking place over three to nine months, establishing ongoing penetration and movement throughout a specific network to evade detection from the existing network monitoring tools.
Two renown Silicon Valley venture investors, Ken Elefant of Sorenson Ventures and TJ Rylander of Next47 discuss the depth of the Equifax Data Breach, cybersecurity issues, best practices and safeguards.
