Equifax chief executive and chairman Richard Smith stepped down on Tuesday in the wake of a massive hack of the consumer credit rating service.
The company tapped longtime Equifax executive Paulino do Rego Barros as interim chief executive while it undertakes a search for a new leader following the massive data breach from the middle of May through July that was disclosed earlier this month.
The hack resulted in the theft of personal information from 143 million US customers.
The origins of the attack are not known, but analysts say it could have been directed by any number of cybercriminal groups or nation-states, for financial gain or for espionage purposes.
Smith would “retire” from both roles effective immediately, the company said.
“At this critical juncture, I believe it is in the best interests of the company to have new leadership to move the company forward,” Smith said.
Mark Feidler, a board member who was named non-executive chairman, said the board is “totally focused” on the cybersecurity incident.
Equifax disclosed the breach on Sept. 7, saying hackers obtained names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers from the database, potentially opening up victims to identity theft.
The company said credit card numbers were compromised for some 209,000 US consumers, as were credit dispute documents for 182,000 people.
The breach is seen as one of the worst ever, because of the sensitivity of the data leaked and the potential for identity theft.
A regulatory filing on the shakeup on Tuesday also said that Smith would waive any right to an annual bonus under his contract and would provide “reasonable assistance” to the company without compensation for 90 days.
However, US Senator Elizabeth Warren said Smith’s departure does not diminish the need for answers about the breach and its consequences.
“I’ve called for Equifax executives to be held accountable for their role in failing to stop this data breach and hiding it from the public for 40 days,” the lawmaker said in a statement. “It’s not real accountability if the CEO resigns without giving back a nickel in pay and without publicly answering questions.”
Warren said she still expects Smith to appear before congressional hearings on the incident.
Last week, Equifax’s chief information officer and chief security officer stepped down as the company began its review of the hack.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”