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Equifax CEO Hired a Music Major as the Company's Chief Security Officer

Posted by msmash on from the caught-red-handed dept.

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.

13 of 430 comments (clear)

  1. Yes and no... by cdreimer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Having a liberal arts degree doesn't disqualify you from working in IT. If you only have a liberal arts degree, no technical certifications and no previous IT experience for a high-level role as CSO, you must have really nice legs.

    1. Re:Yes and no... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:Yes and no... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've worked with some brilliant software engineers and engineering managers at my current job, and here is a list of the non-IT degrees they have:
      B.S. in Political Science
      B.A. in Media Design
      B.A. in English

      These are guys that are designing and implementing financial software for a Fortune 500. Sometimes what your degree is in has the square root of jack shit to do with what you are currently doing, and how well you do it.

    3. Re:Yes and no... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      She was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer at First Data Corporation for four years

    4. Re:Yes and no... by pr0t0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Unless you are getting hired directly out of school for a tech job, whether or not you have a degree in tech means almost nothing. It's your experience that counts. If Mrs. Mauldin majored in music, graduated, found that was a dumb idea and worked her way up through the ranks over 20 years before landing the Chief Security role at Equifax, I have no problem with that.

      This woman may have to take the fall, but often, even senior security staff don't get to dictate everything you think they should. Cost considerations can override their wishes, inconvenience can override it. They can often set guidelines for IT staff that do not report to them and feel no obligation to do what they say.

      I wouldn't skewer this woman just yet.

      --
      I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
    5. Re: Yes and no... by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Funny

      Either way, she's in real deep Treble right about now...

      (...I kid! I kid!)

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    6. Re: Yes and no... by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

      That was very clefer.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    7. Re:Yes and no... by computational+super · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are no doctors without medical degrees. There are no lawyers without law degrees. Yet somehow, tech seems to be the one place where a degree is considered near irrelevant (in fact, according to Slashdot, having a degree in computer science may very well disqualify you from professional programming). The reason most often suggested for this difference is that technology isn't as important as medicine or law. Yet this line of thinking has apparently led to the collapse of the US consumer credit system.

      --
      Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
    8. Re:Yes and no... by slew · · Score: 5, Informative

      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...

  2. Let's not be hypocritical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A good share of this site's users do very important technical work--quite competently--without the educational credentials.
    Let's judge people here by their actions, not their degrees.

    1. Re:Let's not be hypocritical by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How quickly you forget.

      Why are they in the news again? Incompetent administration, unpatched systems, no emphasis on security?

      Her results are on the record.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. Having a degree in a different field isn't wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I myself am a music major and have since gone on to be a highly certified security individual. What a person takes as their post-secondary degree when they are 18-24 and starting life doesn't imply they haven't SINCE developed a full suite of skills and certifications making them perfectly suited to the job.

  4. So? Also better reasons for hiding profile by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've got grade 2 piano and no IT qualifications, and yet I'm working in IT instead of busking my way through chopsticks.

    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.

    I doubt it has anything to do with keeping her education background secret, and more to do with simply wanting to disappear until this particular shit storm blows over. Lot of (rightfully) angry people out there, some of whom might do (unrightfully) angry things.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.