{"id":3002,"date":"2017-09-22T15:10:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T19:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2020-01-07T16:50:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T21:50:17","slug":"post-equifax-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/post-equifax-now.html","title":{"rendered":"Post-Equifax: What Do We Do Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By now, everyone has likely been inundated with information about the Equifax data breach. \u00a0If you are one of the few who has not heard about what happened, here\u2019s the short version: Equifax suffered an enormous security breach as a result of its poor data privacy hygiene resulting in over 143 million people having their credit information, including their social security numbers, names and addresses, potentially exposed. The impact will be felt for a long time and the consequences if you are affected could be significant.<\/p>\n<p>So what exactly did Equifax do wrong? To be blunt, EVERTYTHING. First, according to industry experts, Equifax failed to install a readily available security update that left it vulnerable to hackers. Second, the lack of security updating was compounded by the fact that Equifax\u2019s administrative passwords were simplistic, certainly for a company that\u2019s primary purpose is to store sensitive information, and was easily decipherable by the cyber-intruder. \u00a0Third and what makes matters worse is that the security update was available to Equifax two months before the breach. Fourth, in addition to the lax cyber-hygiene of Equifax was the fact that Equifax waited for months after it knew of the breach before reporting it to the public. \u00a0Fifth, when Equifax finally reported the breach, the message it sent was a weak one that left the public feeling exposed and betrayed, especially when it turned out the certain Equifax executives sold large quantities of company stock after the breach was discovered but before it was reported. \u00a0It is hard to envision any worse corporate conduct both leading up to the breach and continuing until today.<\/p>\n<p>In the aftermath of such an historic cyber-breach, what lessons can companies and individuals learn and what steps are to be taken to mitigate the damage? On the corporate level, companies need to take cybersecurity and data privacy seriously, invest adequate resources to addressing the issue and partner with professionals versed in all aspects of today\u2019s cybersecurity environment, including legal counsel, technical\/forensics experts and insurance professionals. Develop and implement prudent Information Technology practices that include continuous system maintenance, updating\/patching of software, mapping, segregating and encrypting data as well as actively being vigilant for intrusions or data loss. \u00a0Prepare a plan for how to respond to breaches or data losses. Perform vulnerability assessments under the guidance of counsel, to determine where you need to shore up your defenses while maintaining the confidentiality of the assessment results through attorney-client privilege. \u00a0Obtain insurance policies to blunt the impact of data breaches and to obtain resources to assist with specific breaches like ransomware\/malware.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/post-equifax-now.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading Post-Equifax: What Do We Do Now?\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By now, everyone has likely been inundated with information about the Equifax data breach. \u00a0If you are one of the few who has not heard about what happened, here\u2019s the short version: Equifax suffered an enormous security breach as a result of its poor data privacy hygiene resulting in over 143 million people having their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,88,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[178],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cybersecurity-data-privacy-insights","category-levine","category-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Post-Equifax: What Do We Do Now? &#8212; September 22, 2017 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By now, everyone has likely been inundated with information about the Equifax data breach. \u00a0If you are one of the few who has not heard about what\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/post-equifax-now.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Post-Equifax: What Do We Do Now? &#8212; September 22, 2017 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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