Cybersecurity Across The Globe: Hackers Of The Equifax Company (Essay Sample)

Name Institution Date Equifax Company Many companies in the contemporary world today face cyber-attacks from hackers. Cyber threats and attacks destroy the company’s businesses and reputation hence they are subjected to litigation, cost of remedies as well as fines. Equifax Company is not an exception in this context after it suffered a massive data breach from May to July last year. In this regard, data breached involved access to information in the US and UK at large. Hackers were able to access personal information like birth dates, names, driver’s licenses, credit cards, and security numbers. Close to one hundred and forty-three million users of Equifax were affected in the American soil according to credit agencies. The above narrative also shows that any company is a possible target and it is not the question of how or when the attack will take place. Most companies are not always aware of the attack thus employers, employees, businesses and the general public are affected (Lemos, 2017). The totality of implications in the Equifax Company shows one hundred and forty-three record compromised. The above number is enough to predict the affected people in the US. The negative social impact is that every household in the US was concerned during the breach since hackers accessed employment histories and names of children at large. The social perception in this regard facilitates the economic perspective in this regard. In that creating the essence that Equifax Company planned to dump all the credit cards affected in the US. The company claimed that a dark web was used to access all the data that is why it is essential to terminate all compromised credit cards. According to the CEO of Cybernance, Mike Shultz claims that it is a technical hitch in the company that the hackers took advantage of to breach the data and that it seems like the technical assault was not secured (Lemos, 2017). Another impact of data breach the company suffered is the risk of putting American citizens in getting or applying for jobs. Commercial enterprises will not be in a position of giving jobs to those affected presumably close to forty-four percent of American citizens were affected. The extensive and confidential information that the firm holds is a notion that will impact the future of even the children in the contemporary society. One will not be able to buy a house in the future because records will indicate a compromised financial status in the future. On the other hand, banking systems will also have a hard time in configuring the credit card is compromised thus facilitating the freezing of the credit cards. When banking institutions start claiming the above narrative interests rates will decline hence affecting the US economy. Moreover, when the US economy starts deteriorating, it will lead to global economic damage in the world. Besides, another impact in the company after the data breach is the loss of investors. Investors, in this case, lost their trust in the company. The confidence in the company also deteriorated after their reputation was tarnished across the media. The company faced a lot of criticism from all kinds of people and media which alleged that there is insider trading within the company at large. In this regard, the first blow was the investors' input and support that dropped by thirty-four percent in one week. The above narrative also placed the company at risk of losing revenue from businesses that started to withdraw their support from the company at large. Any company in the contemporary world that faces withdrawal from investors in such manner is in a position of incurring financial losses through businesses that would lack confidences in the company’s daily activities. It is undisputed, to note that cybersecurity is necessary for these companies that are sensitive across the globe (Weiser, 2017).   The reputational damage in the company would automatically lead to investigations in the company’s proceedings thus facilitating the filing of lawsuits against the damage the company has caused. In most cases, the company will incur a lot of losses since its main aim will be to pay debts of every citizen affected during the data breach. As depicted earlier insider trading claims will emerge in the lawsuits and the company will also hire proficient lawyers to defend their case. The picture painted when the company faces such criticism, lousy reputation, and numerous trials will lead to a long-term financial limitation through lack of revenues, businesses, and investors at large. Furthermore, charges will automatically be considered at the courts when such activities of cyber-attacks occur. The cyber-attack succeeded because the company forgot to patch which is the first cybersecurity lesson. The web-application the hackers used was last repaired in March, and the company did not make a follow-up activity on its Apache Struts thus making the hackers to succeed. It came back later on at them that they had forgotten the follow-up activity. Over one hundred and forty-three million users affected and close to three hundred million dollars lost. The company did not put its top updates to achieve the recent activities of their web-application. Thus it was exploited by the hackers. Lawsuits have been filed on the same and shares are dropping daily. The lack of frequent checkup created the ease of access to information such as birthdates, credit lines and personal information that is vital in the public domain. Another poor cybersecurity practice in the company is the prompt to administer a link in the website that advised most users to follow the link and download the Equifax App. The above analogy considers whether it was a hacker’s prompt or the company’s mistake that led the pirates to succeed in data breaching at large. The link might also be the gate pass of the hack that affected millions of American citizens (Lemos, 2018). In this regard, it essential to note that both managerial and technical control of the company got compromised hence creating the massive data breach in the company. The access to links and websites such as the Argentine web portal through the secured logins that could not be corrupted unless the admin of the site did not obtain the logins also led to a data breach. The combination of the logins is always secure in any company, and its access is prohibited to any employee in the company. On the other hand, through various criticism, it is believed that insider trading activities took place in the company thus facilitating the breach. The above-depicted notion show art of managerial control in the company. People within the company might have eased the attack because the administrative authority was compromised. The technical hitch experienced in this context is the ability of the hackers to use various links advising users to download the Equifax app and the inability of the company to do a follow-up activity on the last patch of the software application. The notion displayed led to the data breach in the company affecting millions of citizens in American, Canada, and the UK (Andra, 2017). Equifax Company incurred a lot of risks including the fallout of investors and business. In this case, Equifax lost the gamble in the attempt of accepting l...