Equifax Inc. had spent years working to repair its reputation after a massive data breach when lockdown orders meant office workers around the world had to start working from home this spring. With most of its 11,000-plus employees scattered far from the company’s security team, the credit rating agency couldn’t afford a repeat of the painful 2017 breach, in which cybercriminals accessed Social Security numbers, addresses, drivers-license information and other details of about 150 million Americans. In an effort to protect its most sensitive information, Equifax gave customer-support agents laptops with software designed to detect suspicious activity that could expose information or give hackers a way into the company’s computer network. Those employees normally work in restricted call centers and typically weren’t allowed to work from home, said Jamil Farshchi, the company’s chief information security officer. Security researchers have warned that hackers are targeting employees doing business from their new, makeshift workplaces, using techniques such as scam emails that pretend to be videoconference invitations but that actually steal network credentials.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 22, 2020 03:56 UTC