News of the Equifax data breach broke last week sending ripples across the global cybersecurity community. This data breach is arguably the most severe private data breach to date. Some 143 million Americans’ private data was exposed and stolen. Social security numbers credit card numbers composed the majority of the data breach.

When non-public information is stolen from an organization, very often cyber attackers will auction off the sensitive data across clandestine, anonymous Dark Net markets. The purchasers can then use the stolen data to conduct identity fraud, financial fraud, or perform targeted attacks against individuals. In general, data breaches are very dangerous.

The Equifax data breach lasted from Mid-May throughout July 2017. Although the incident is still under investigation, some information has been made public. The breach included the loss of 143 million records, and serves as a reminder that every link in the software supply chain must be continuously monitored by information security programs.