How did Equifax breach happen?
The Equifax breach is being attributed to the exploit of a vulnerability in the open source Apache Struts framework.
What is the Apache Struts vulnerability Equifax exploited?
The vulnerability that attackers exploited to access Equifax's system was in the Apache Struts web-application software, a widely used enterprise platform.
What happened to Equifax’s data?
Capping a week of incompetence, failures, and general shady behavior in responding to its massive data breach, Equifax has confirmed that attackers entered its system in mid-May through a web-application vulnerability that had a patch available in March.
Did Equifax fail to protect itself against a known flaw?
But observers say the ongoing discoveries increasingly paint a picture of negligence —especially in Equifax's failure to protect itself against a known flaw with a ready fix. The vulnerability that attackers exploited to access Equifax's system was in the Apache Struts web-application software, a widely used enterprise platform.
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What was the vulnerability in the Equifax breach?
Equifax acknowledged that the criminals who gained access to its customer data exploited a website application vulnerability known as Apache Struts CVE-2017-5638.
What kind of attack was the Equifax breach?
Today's indictment charges that members of the People's Liberation Army—the armed forces of the People's Republic of China—were behind that malware attack. According to the indictment, Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke, and Liu Lei exploited a vulnerability in the dispute resolution website within the Equifax system.
What CVE caused data breach in the Equifax?
When did the Equifax breach happen? The crisis began in March of 2017. 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.
How was Equifax affected by the data breach?
Roughly two years ago, nearly half the American population had their personal information compromised by hackers in Equifax's enormous database. Consumers were outraged, lawmakers upbraided the chief executive and Equifax ultimately reached a settlement with regulators for up to $700 million.
Why did the Chinese hackers hack Equifax?
While Justice Department officials do not believe economic espionage was the primary goal of the Equifax hacking, Mr. Demers said the attack could be seen as a violation of the spirit of that deal. “China sees economic interests and intelligence interests as one and the same,” he said.
What were the key weakness that led to the Equifax data breach?
The Equifax breach is being attributed to the exploit of a vulnerability in the open source Apache Struts framework.
What is the Apache Struts vulnerability?
A vulnerability has been discovered in Apache Struts, which could allow for remote code execution. Apache Struts is an open source framework used for building Java web applications. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow for remote code execution.
What did Equifax use Apache Struts for?
In the case of Equifax the Apache Struts framework was used to create publicly accessible web applications which are used by consumers to inquire about their credit report.
Was there an Equifax data breach?
Facts about the Equifax data breach and settlement Equifax initially disclosed the data breach September 7, 2017. The company said it discovered the data breach in July 2017. The unauthorized access of personal data that was exposed by Equifax could increase the risk of identity theft for anyone affected.
How could Equifax breach been prevented?
The committee made several recommendations to prevent future incidents like the one at Equifax, including reducing the use of social security numbers as personal identifiers. To protect yourself freeze your credit, have secure passwords and be sure to shred sensitive documents.
What could Equifax have done differently to prevent the cyberattack?
What could Equifax have done differently to prevent the cyberattack? The cyber attacker targeted the vulnerable patches of the software Equifax user; the top management and software team were aware about the vulnerability. They could have fixed the known bug in system before releasing the application.
How secure is Equifax?
How secure is the information I provide to Equifax.com? Social Security number and credit card number(s) are encrypted before being transmitted to/from our servers. For your security, this site requires the use of a 128-bit SSL compatible browser.
What type of breach is ransomware?
"An impermissible use or disclosure under the Privacy Rule that compromises the security or privacy of the protected health information." Under this definition, a ransomware attack would be classified as a notifiable data breach if private patient data was exfiltrated in addition to being encrypted.
Was there an Equifax breach?
Equifax initially disclosed the data breach September 7, 2017. The company said it discovered the data breach in July 2017. The unauthorized access of personal data that was exposed by Equifax could increase the risk of identity theft for anyone affected.
What would Equifax have done differently to prevent the cyber attack?
Alas, hackers gained access and stole data from millions of people. What could Equifax have done differently that may have thwarted the breach? Security experts say they could have applied patches for known vulnerabilities in a standard patch update process. But what about the Big Picture?
When was the target data breach?
During the Target breach, cybercriminals were able to steal 40 million credit and debit records and 70 million customer records. This occurred during the holiday season in 2013. While it wasn't the single largest security breach in history, it was one of the largest.