Equifax Security Chief's Degree Was in Music

She is one of 2 senior execs stepping down
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 16, 2017 10:55 AM CDT
2 Senior Equifax Execs Step Down After Hack
Equifax has offered free credit freezes until Nov. 21.   (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

Two senior Equifax execs have stepped down as the investigation of what may be the biggest data breach in US history continues. The credit-reporting firm says security chief Susan Mauldin and chief technology officer David Webb are retiring effective immediately, the New York Times reports. After the leak that exposed the data of 143 million Americans became public, it emerged that Mauldin has a degree in music composition but apparently no education in technology or security. Interviews with Mauldin have been removed from YouTube, though MarketWatch unearthed a transcript of one in which she says they are interested in hiring good analysts of any kind, because "security can be learned."

The departing execs are not among the three that sold off $1.8 million in shares days after the company discovered the breach. The company's shares have dropped by around a third since the breach was disclosed, the AP notes. Democratic senators introduced a bill Friday that would ban Equifax from profiting from the breach by charging for credit freezes. At Bloomberg, the editorial board argues that Equifax should be dealt with under existing legislation, which allows the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to "penalize companies for failing to make 'reasonable' efforts to keep sensitive information out of the wrong hands." (For two months, Equifax failed to fix the known security hole that hackers exploited.)

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