Richard Smith

Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Equifax

Search every verified Richard Smith interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith testified before Congress in 2017 and 2018 regarding a data breach that compromised personal information of over 145 million Americans. Smith stated that the criminal hack "happened on my watch" and said he took "full responsibility" for the incident. He apologized to affected consumers and attributed the breach to a combination of human error, including a failure to apply a software patch, and technological error involving a scanner that failed to detect the vulnerability. During questioning, Smith said that Equifax's general counsel and other executives who sold stock in early August 2017 did not know it was a breach at the time, describing the incident as "suspicious activity" with no indication that personally identifiable information had been compromised. Smith stated that upon his retirement he agreed to step down with no further compensation, no bonus, and no severance. In a separate hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned Smith about Equifax's profits, which Smith confirmed had increased by more than 80 percent since 2013 despite multiple data breaches. Smith also acknowledged that Equifax receives revenue from LifeLock, a credit monitoring service that saw increased enrollment after the breach.