Equifax executives sold $1.8 million in stock after breach
Three senior Equifax executives sold a combined $1.8 million in company stock just days after the company discovered a massive security breach.
Equifax (EFX) said Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and two other executives, Rodolfo Ploder and Joseph Loughran, sold their shares on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, just days after Equifax detected the hack on July 29. The three company executives were not aware of the hack at the time they sold the shares, the company said. The security breach exposed the personal information of 143 million Americans, including Social Security numbers.
The executives "had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares," the company said in a statement. The hack, which occurred between mid-May and July, was publicly disclosed by Equifax on Thursday.
The stock sales effectively insulated the executives from a downturn in Equifax's stock. Its shares dropped 13 percent in extended trading after the announcement of the breach. Hackers exploited a vulnerability on its website to gain access to personal information for 143 million U.S. consumers, including their names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and in some cases driver's license numbers. Now the unwitting victims have to worry about the threat of having their identities stolen.
Credit card numbers for about 209,000 consumers and documents related to credit reporting disputes for 182,000 people also were exposed, Equifax said, adding that hackers also accessed some information from British and Canadian consumers. The company doesn't think residents of other countries were affected.
The FBI is looking into the breach, CBS News has confirmed.
