Harvard have reportedly updated their business publication on the Equifax cyber hack that looks to examine the cause of and response to the monumental data protection breach that Equifax suffered last year.
Ultimately, you know your data breach is huge when Harvard Business Publishing have an educational book examining the incident.
The revision was published in the last few months, with the material itself offering educational participants the opportunity to analyse the issues of the data breach, both from the perspective of the management of Equifax, and from how they dealt with their data as well.
There’s no doubt that the Equifax data breach was a huge. With over 145 million people affected by it – and 700,000 of those here in the UK – it’s massive. What’s worse is the fact that the data they held and left exposed was personal and sensitive, and some of it was financial. The Harvard material is marketed for people to look at the current issues of cybersecurity and how companies like Equifax manage and respond to data breach incidents.
Although we appreciate the value of such material – especially when it’s published by an esteemed institution like Harvard – the long and short of this particular data breach isn’t too difficult to analyse.
Simply put, Equifax failed to patch a known security vulnerability. On top of that, their own systems failed to identify the ongoing vulnerability. Fast-forward a few months, cybercriminals looking to exploit the vulnerability discover that Equifax hasn’t secured their systems, and they easily break into and find the exposed data.
This was ultimately a gross failure in due diligence on the part of Equifax to ensure that a wealth of data they held for millions of people was safe and secure. That’s why we’re taking cases forward for Equifax data breach victims on a No Win, No Fee basis.
We currently act for a large group of victims of the Equifax breach, and if you have been affected and you’d like some free, no obligation advice about your rights, feel free to get in touch with us.