The fallout of the Equifax data breach is going to be felt by companies, individuals and government for years to come.
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The fallout of the Equifax data breach is going to be felt by companies, individuals and government for years to come.
This digital disaster will cause millions of people significant stress as they are dragged into a near never-ending battle with identity thieves.
It will cost billions to contain, and attempt to clean-up, and the proceeds of the crime will throw even more fuel onto the roaring fire that is global cyber crime.
What is Equifax and what happened?
Equifax is one of the big four credit bureaus — they rank a person’s worthiness to receive credit — things like car loans, mortgages, credit cards or sometimes even services such as telephone, cable and, in the US, even health care.
Their database includes personally identifiable information — names, addresses and most crucially, data like social security numbers in the US or social insurance numbers in Canada.
‘Companies aren’t yet required to report data breaches or disclose any information about such breaches. We are severely lagging behind many countries in this regard … ‘— David Shipley
In May, an unknown group successfully breached Equifax’s online services by exploiting a vulnerability in their #web servers.
A software fix, called a patch for the vulnerability, had been available in March but was not put in place. Equifax only reported the breach last week. As many as 143 million Americans and reportedly as many as 44 million people in the UK are affected.
As of this weekend, all we know about Canada is that some people are affected, but no idea exactly how many or how much personal information has been compromised.
Reportedly 10,000 Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) subscribers in Canada have been notified that their information was included in the breach.
Why don’t we know more?
To be honest, it’s the result of gaping holes in Canada’s privacy legislation.
Companies aren’t yet required to report data breaches or disclose any information about such breaches.”
Read the entire article at the link below.
Source: Equifax data breach a ‘digital disaster’ for Canadians – New Brunswick – CBC News