BENGALURU: US credit reporting firm Equifax Inc said on Tuesday its chief executive Richard Smith will retire, a week before he was expected to testify before a Senate Banking Committee in the wake of a massive cyber attack.Equifax disclosed earlier this month that personal details of up to 143 million US consumers were accessed by hackers between mid-May and July, in one of the largest data breaches in the United States.“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.Smith’s resignation puts him among a small number of CEOs to lose their jobs due to a cyber breach, including the head of Target Corp following a 2013 credit card hack. In both cases the companies were unable to shake scrutiny that focused as much on their public response as the breach itself.

Source: The Star September 26, 2017 13:52 UTC