Two Equifax executives resign in wake of massive data breach

Two executives at the credit reporting company Equifax are resigning effective immediately as the company deals with fallout from a massive data breach.

The company said on Friday that chief information officer David Webb will step down immediately and be replaced by Mark Rohrwasser, who was in charge of Equifax International IT operations since coming to the company in 2016.

Equifax’s chief security officer Susan Mauldin is stepping down as well. Russ Ayres, Equifax’s vice president of IT will fill the role in the interim.

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Equifax reported last week that it had been the victim of a massive breach of customer information that could affect as many as 143 million U.S. customers.

The company believes that customers’ personal data including birth dates and credit card numbers were obtained in the breach.

On Capitol Hill, the hack has generated unprecedented backlash for a cybersecurity breach. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have decried the breach and questioned Equifax’s security precautions.

The Senate Commerce and Finance committees have both penned letters to the company demanding more answers about the extent of the breach and what Equifax is doing to try to mitigate its impacts.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Financial Services Committee have also called for hearings to further scrutinize the breach. Equifax CEO Richard Smith has said that he will attend Energy and Commerce’s October 3 hearing on the breach.

A separate group of Equifax executives outside the duo that stepped down on Friday have also piqued the interest of politicians. In their letters to Equifax, Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Finance Committee leaders pressed the company for details regarding three executives who unloaded almost $2 million worth of Equifax stock days after the breach occured.

Equifax says that the executives were only notified of the breach after they sold company equity and exercised options totaling at $1.8 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission has not yet commented on whether it will investigate the matter.

– This story was updated at 7:43 p.m.