Equifax Cybersecurity Incident

Case Study 1; Equifax Cybersecurity Incident Name Institution Case Study 1; Equifax Cybersecurity Incident Introduction Individuals and government agencies around the world are trading blames and accusations over who are the perpetrators and victims of the rampant cybercrimes occurring across the world. While the blame game continues, the innocent victim of such criminal attacks remains exposed by the breach as their personal information can be used to the advantage of the perpetrators. Information security risk thus becomes an essential factor for organizations, business or otherwise, and government institutions or agencies to consider when setting up or enhancing the overall security measures of their offices. Interventional and control measures over information security such as risk assessment play a significant role in averting or rather identifying the possibility of such threats occurring. The risk assessment methodologies embraced by a particular organization function to safeguard the information collected by the institutions on their consumers or beneficiaries of the services offered by the diverse platforms. Nevertheless, protecting the user information proves to be a challenge to a majority of the firms as witnessed with the recent rise in cybersecurity breaches across various federal agencies. The information security breach at Equifax, for instance, exposed millions of United States’ citizens to manipulation by the cybercriminals who accessed a wide range of personal information. However, effective implementation and compliance with the GAO-provided guidelines on the management of information security risks through elaborate risk assessment methodologies offer a lifeline for federal organizations in the United States and around the World. Provided herein is a practical application of one of the guidelines highlighting various elements of the proposed risk assessment methodology as provided in the said guidelines. The Case Study and Vulnerabilities to Equifax Equifax, a regulatory organization concerning consumer credit reports, holds vital information that is not only important to the individuals but also financial institutions around the nation. An information security breach on its systems exposes the nation’s economy to negative repercussions. Additionally, the personal information over 150 million people may be used for the purpose of committing other crimes whose scope is unknown to both the government and the innocent victims of the same. It is evident that the firm is at the risk of losing the consumers’ confidence as they would feel betrayed by the agency’s lack proper measures to protect their information. The information security breach takes the face of a breach of trust from the consumers’ end irrespective of the agency’s innocence in the matter. The firm also faces the risk of monetary losses being an institution responsible for upholding consumers’ credit information. The loss of productivity also makes for an inevitable risk facing the firm as the breach renders obsolete its previous or past work in maintaining the privacy of such information. The outlined risks may have manifested through five key areas of the federal agency’s daily operations. The areas within the organization that are ...