Did Equifax have the right data security protection?

Equifax’s massive data breach now has government officials knocking at their doors. Last week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance demanded answers regarding the hack from the consumer credit reporting agency. An array of questions have surfaced from the Senators and most of the general public: Was this a case of gross corporate negligence? Could the attack been easily averted? How advanced was this hack? Was it planned internally or externally? What are the repercussions of this attack on the American public and for Equifax? Still, a key to the investigation is security and Senators from the committee want to know whether Equifax had made suitable attempts to store and monitor their customer data adequately.

There are several ways a company could be hacked and it’s important to understand that security is a process. Equifax’s monumental 143 million person breach occurred when hackers exploited a vulnerability that was supposedly patched in early March of 2017. However, Equifax did not apply the patch to the vulnerability until after the attack took place on July 29, 2017.It appears the company suffered organizationally in the process of their security, and the leadership behind it. It makes you wonder how the sensitive data they were responsible for was managed - and what were their subsidiary means of protection?Most corporations are not aware of the importance of content governance as part of a smart security process, but it’s a key feature that Egnyte Protect delivers. For businesses seeking a first-class enterprise answer to managing their confidential data, Egnyte’s solutions (Connect and Protect) provide a smart, easy, and most importantly secure data solution.Through intelligent data organization and a robust open architecture, our solution gives organizations real-time oversight over their data, no matter where it’s stored - on-prem or in the cloud. Egnyte recognizes suspicious file activity and provides instant alerts the moment confidential data is exposed and vulnerable. Our tools also help industries meet compliance laws such as HIPAA (Healthcare Information Portability and Accountability Act), the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and the E.U’s forthcoming GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).Your company shouldn’t be challenged by the management and struggles of privacy control; your data security should be a seamless process. Egnyte Protect always makes your employees' safety and customer’s privacy our top priority.Every company deals with sensitive data in some form.  But not every employee is trained with the latest updates, policies or processes that digital security requires. Egnyte Protect keeps an eye on your sensitive data so your employees can focus on what they were hired to do.Click HERE to Request a FREE Egnyte Protect AssessmentSources:1)9.11.17 Hatch, Wyden Request Information on Equifax Breach_Redacted.pdf2)https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/equifax-cio-and-cso-retire/