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Equifax CEO Hired a Music Major as the Company's Chief Security Officer
Susan Mauldin, the person in charge of the Equifax's data security, has a bachelor's degree and a master of fine arts degree in music composition from the University of Georgia, according to her LinkedIn profile. Mauldin's LinkedIn profile lists no education related to technology or security. If that wasn't enough, news outlet MarketWatch reported on Friday that Susan Mauldin's LinkedIn page was made private and her last name was replaced with "M", in a move that appears to keep her education background secret.
Earlier this month Equifax, which is one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, said that hackers had gained access to company data that potentially compromised sensitive information for 143 million American consumers, including Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers. On Friday, the UK arm of the organisation said files containing information on "fewer than 400,000" UK consumers was accessed in the breach.
UPDATE (9/16/2017): CSO Susan Mauldin has abruptly 'retired' from Equifax.
Earlier this month Equifax, which is one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, said that hackers had gained access to company data that potentially compromised sensitive information for 143 million American consumers, including Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers. On Friday, the UK arm of the organisation said files containing information on "fewer than 400,000" UK consumers was accessed in the breach.
UPDATE (9/16/2017): CSO Susan Mauldin has abruptly 'retired' from Equifax.
She was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer at First Data Corporation for four years
Yes nothing says she (or anyone with a liberal arts degree) can't be a good security officer. But it is suspicious that all of her background is now hidden. It might have been she was CSO for political reasons as one would find in big companies that the person who plays politics is promoted over people who have experience or skill.
Well, as it turns out, her "resume" prior to Equifax lists
* Senior Director of Information Security, Audit and Compliance at HP
* Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer and First Data Corporation
* Group Vice President Sun Trust Bank
Sounds to me that she worked up the "vice-president" track (easy to do in a bank as everyone is a VP) and stumbled on to security from the audit/compliance side of the house. This is like a VP of engineering coming up from the marketing/product specification side of the house. All most of these folks know how to do is check the boxes... They might have learned some buzzwords along the way, but you would never trust them to actually *do* anything...