House Report Says Equifax Breach Was Preventable

The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released its report on the Equifax breach. It found that the lack of modernized security controls combined with dozens of expired certificates created vulnerable systems and resulted in the data breach of 143 million records. The cyberattack that started on May 13, 2017, lasted for 76 days, during which time malicious actors were able to access and exfiltrate unencrypted personally identifiable information hundreds of times, according to the report. The breach resulted in CEO Richard Smith announcing his retirement on September 26, 2017, a little over a month after he had delivered a speech at the University of Georgia in which he explained that the company manages massive amounts of very unique data.