ITM102_ Case Study 3 - Ilham Saidur (1)
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Toronto Metropolitan University *
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102
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Information Systems
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Apr 3, 2024
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Case 03: Is the Equifax Hack the Worst
Ever?
March 12th, 2023
1.
The overall weakness of the Equifax company was a lack of care for security as the company grew larger. After taking off and being one of the main credit history information databases, the company focussed more on commercializing and gaining more users through banks and other services, but had security as a second thought; they failed to maintain the required maintenance and upgrades to keep up with the strength of modern hackers. Had the company kept up its safety from cyberattacks with its exponential growth, the entire data breach could have been avoided.
2.
The management of the Equifax Credit Bureau became lazy and did not take full responsibility that comes along with the roles that they are in charge of. This led to a poor team that does not always push for the best of security. The result of this was the CEO, the CSO and the CIO resigning from the company requiring a complete reconstruction of the managerial structure that was in place prior to the security breach. The company had a lack of organization by not keeping up with the growth of the company and disregarding the importance of the information that is held. Also being a technological issue, they had failed to do regular maintenance checks and keep all their firewalls, softwares and security systems at the newest and strongest levels, leaving the companies database vulnerable to cyber attacks
3.
The impact of the data breach in 2017 is the risk of hundreds of thousands of workers losing their identities in the eyes of the legal system. With the security breach taking critical personal information of users, it puts the consumers at risk of permanent damage
and security issues. The information taken from Equifax may be used for scams, fraud, or even to be anonymously sold to other people on the dark web with malicious intent. Nearly half of the citizens of the United States who have had information shared with Equifax prior to 2017 are at a high possibility that some of their information was stolen, leading to a high chance of identity theft.
4.
The best way to prevent security breaches from happening in the future is to always keep up to date with the softwares that you are using. Regular maintenance is key to a strong security system, as it leaves no room for error and breaches. Being up to date with hacker systems with strong research and development can also help avoid these security breaches by making a force to combat the potential attacks that a company might face. Having strong management and strong security programs keep info safe.
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