Equifax, a consumer credit reporting and global information solutions company, has appointed Jamil Farshchi as its chief information security officer. The move comes after Equifax suffered a data breach between mid-May and July 2017; the breach impacted 143 million U.S. consumers and nearly 400,000 UK customers -- triggering CEO, CIO and CISO resignations at Equifax last year.
Eager to right those wrongs and strengthen the company's cyber standing, Farshchi is responsible for overhauling Equifax's information security operations, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Who Is Jamil Farshchi?
Farshchi most recently served as CISO at The Home Depot; he joined the company after it experienced a data breach in 2014 that affected 56 million customers. In that role, Farshchi led Home Depot's risk intelligence and rapid response efforts.
Prior to joining the Home Depot, Farshchi worked as CISO at Time Warner. He was Time Warner's first global CISO and helped the company develop a risk-based security program.
Furthermore, Farshchi has held information security roles at Visa, NASA and other globally recognized organizations. He possesses more than a decade of information security expertise and could help Equifax enhance its information security operations in the aftermath of last year's data breach.
A Closer Look at the Equifax Data Breach
Cybercriminals accessed the addresses, birth dates, names and other consumer data between mid-May and July, Equifax stated. In addition, the credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers and dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers were accessed during the incident.
Equifax Chief Information Officer David Webb and Chief Security Officer Susan Mauldin "retired" on September 15, according to a prepared statement. At that time, Equifax appointed Mark Rohrwasser as its interim CIO and Russ Ayres as its interim CSO.
Also, Equifax CEO Richard Smith announced his retirement less than three weeks after the data breach was disclosed. Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., a seven-year Equifax veteran, was appointed Equifax's interim CEO following Smith's retirement.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece published September 27, Barros apologized for the Equifax data breach. He noted Equifax continues to explore ways to address the incident and would offer a service to give consumers the ability to lock and unlock access to their credit.
Equifax's revenue rose 4 percent year over year to $834.8 million in the third quarter of 2017, the company indicated. Comparatively, Equifax's diluted earnings per share (EPS) fell 28 percent to $0.79 during the quarter.
