Ex-Equifax CEO Says There's No Evidence Breach Was an Inside Job

(Bloomberg) -- Equifax Inc. has seen no evidence that the cyberattackers who got access to sensitive information on 145 million U.S. consumers worked for the company, former Chief Executive Officer Richard Smith said.

Smith appeared Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee to testify on the breach of Atlanta-based firm's servers. Equifax has “no indication” that the attack was an inside job, Smith said in response to a question from Representative Edwin Perlmutter, a Colorado Democrat. The attackers avoided detection by moving small files at slow speed, he said.

The company said in a statement earlier this week that an independent cybersecurity firm has completed its forensic investigation. Outside counsel and the FBI are still finishing up their probes into the breach, Smith said Thursday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Gregory Mott