Equifax bigs out following data breach

EQUIFAX ANNOUNCED late Friday that its chief information officer and chief security officer would leave the company immediately, following the enormous breach of 143 million Americans’ personal information.

The credit-data company — under intense pressure since it disclosed last week that hackers accessed Social Security numbers, birthdates and other information — also released a detailed, if still muddled, timeline of how it discovered and handled the breach.

Equifax said that Susan Mauldin, who had been the top security officer, and David Webb, the chief technology officer, are retiring. Mauldin, a college music major, had come under media scrutiny for her qualifications in security. She is being replaced by Russ Ayers, a company informationtechnology executive. Webb is being replaced by Mark Rohrwasser, who most recently was in charge of Equifax’s international technology operations.

The FBI and the Federal Trade Commission are investigating the data breach.