Equifax Data Breach - COMP1300 - Major Individual Report Assessment The company was initially attacked via a consumer complaint web portal where the attackers, using a widely known vulnerability that was expected to have been patched, were able to infiltrate the company’s systems. Apache had recommended an upgrade to their Apache Struts software being used that supported an online-portal allowing consumers to dispute their individual credit details. By exploiting this gateway into the system, the attackers were able to upload programming language to the main server and gain remote access to its systems. The attackers were able to find Equifax database credentials to falsify their logins as authorised users on the Equifax network, furthering their efforts into diving deeper into Equifax’s systems. Once in the system, they were able to pull sensitive personal information from the network in in compressed temporary files that were further divided into smaller files to decrease the likelihood of getting caught when transmitting the stolen data. Using 34 servers in 20 countries, the attackers used encrypted logins over a remote desktop to mask their access to the Equifax system and perform the data breach over the course of 4 months. (Fruhlinger, J 2020).