TalkTalk Business COO Duncan Gooding on security strategy since 2015 cyberattack

TalkTalk Business COO Duncan Gooding has been raising awareness of security throughout the telecom organisation to prevent another devastating cyberattack since his appointment in December 2016.

The organisation has changed its security strategy since the 2015 cyberattack which cost TalkTalk £400,000 in fines and a loss of £60 million.

The TalkTalk data breach affected over 157,000 customers who had their personal details stolen, including their bank account numbers, user passwords and email addresses.

“TalkTalk Business is very much going through a cultural acceptance of what security means across the business,” he said. “Security is as much as a cultural thing as an IT solution so we have a whole cultural initiative.

“We currently have an online training system with all our staff going through training programmes making sure employees aware of all the types of security and risk and what we would expect in terms of a secure approach.”

Gooding, who is leading a security imitative, ensures security should remain an ongoing issue for TalkTalk Business at every level of the organisation.

“Security is discussed at every meeting and is embedded in everything we do with the products and the services that we launch and has become part of the day to day discussion,” he said.

The increased number of mobile devices has seen challenges for the telecom company, but the COO explained how TalkTalk Business has changed its approach since the hack.

“We had an independent body come in and review all our processes and security – right from our consumer business to our B2B and in our network,” he said.

Since 2015, TalkTalk Business regularly tests and monitors its security infrastructure and will also see third parties check its networks on a regular basis.

The COO, who plans to roll out robots and automation at the business arm of teleco, admits that in order to implement the technology TalkTalk Business will invest heavily in its security teams with the robots having to go through the vulnerability process.

Gooding says the future of the company remains positive since the cyberattack with the company’s main focus ensuring its customers are protected.

“As the challenger brand we want people to break away from the negative relationships they have with TalkTalk Business,” he said. “Making investments in the network and security systems has become a priority for me as the COO and TalkTalk Business, which will deliver to users a better service and overall customer journey.”