The Equifax Data Breach: How 147 Million Americans Were Exposed

In September 2017, Equifax announced one of the worst data breaches in history. The credit reporting giant revealed that hackers had stolen personal information belonging to 147.9 million Americans. That's nearly half the country's population.

What makes this breach particularly frustrating is that it was entirely preventable. The hackers exploited a vulnerability in Apache Struts, a web framework Equifax was using. Here's the kicker: a patch for this vulnerability had been available for months. Equifax just never installed it.

The attackers got in around mid-May 2017 and stayed hidden in Equifax's systems for 76 days. During that time, they helped themselves to Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver's license numbers. For about 209,000 people, they also grabbed credit card information.

The Aftermath Was Expensive

Equifax paid dearly for this mistake. The cleanup and legal settlements cost the company over $1.4 billion. Their CEO resigned. In 2019, they agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that could reach $700 million. But the real cost was to the millions of people whose personal information is now floating around the dark web forever.

What Went Wrong

This wasn't a sophisticated attack using some zero-day exploit. It was basic stuff. The vulnerability was publicly known. A patch was available. Equifax just didn't apply it. Once the hackers were inside, they moved around the network freely because Equifax didn't have proper segmentation in place. And nobody noticed the massive data exfiltration happening over two and a half months.

Multiple security failures happened at multiple levels. It's a textbook case of what not to do.

Lessons for Your Business

You might be thinking this doesn't apply to you because you're not Equifax. Fair enough. But the same principles apply whether you're a credit bureau or a small e-commerce site.

First, keep your software updated. This sounds obvious, but Equifax proves it's not. Set up automatic updates where you can. For critical security patches, drop everything and install them immediately.

Second, think about network segmentation. If someone does get in, you don't want them accessing everything. Keep sensitive data separated from your public-facing systems.

Third, monitor your systems. Equifax didn't notice someone stealing massive amounts of data for 76 days. That shouldn't happen. Set up monitoring that alerts you to unusual activity. Strange login attempts, large data transfers, new admin accounts created at 3 AM. These are red flags.

Finally, only collect the data you actually need. The less sensitive information you store, the less attractive you are as a target, and the less damage a breach can cause.

The Real Takeaway

The Equifax breach shows that having resources doesn't guarantee security. What matters is using those resources properly. For small businesses, this is actually good news. You don't need a massive security budget. You need to do the basics consistently. Keep software updated, monitor your systems, and don't store data you don't need.

Most breaches happen because of simple oversights, not sophisticated hacking. Fix the simple stuff and you're ahead of most websites out there.