The Chairman and CEO of Equifax yesterday became the latest executive to “retire” in the wake of the enormous data breach announced on 7th September; the CIO and CSO having already “retired” two weeks ago. The previous “retirements” coincide with the bottoming out of a steep fall in share price (roughly 33% or $5b) following the public announcement, but it is impossible to say if the two are linked; there seems to have been little reaction from the market to the CEO’s departure, perhaps it was already expected?
Even if the changes of personnel have calmed the market for now, nothing can detract from the fact that this was a huge data breach; with the private data of 143 million Americans being exposed (as well as 400 000 Brits). As well as the sheer size of the breach, the company’s initial response seemed to focus on trying to minimise legal liabilities which, unsurprisingly, has attracted much criticism and resulted in a number of class-action law suits taking off anyway. All in all, the new leadership team have quite a job on their hands.