IT security industry largely happy with TalkTalk breach report

Many of the government recommendations advised after a committee meeting revolving around the TalkTalk data breach, appear to have been positively received by the IT security industry. Pundits, however, are showing more caution, especially where new fine proposals are concerned.

Co-founder and CTO of security company Imperva, Amichai Shulman, said that although businesses need to take more action to protect customer data, they shouldn’t be in a position to go it alone.

Shulman feels that cyber-crime reduction is a key point that the inquiry report fails to emphasise enough. He said:

“If this criminal incident affecting UK businesses and consumers was important enough to initiate an investigation by a government committee, it should be getting the same attention from a law enforcement perspective.”

The areas in the report that received the most support include educating consumers about IT security and increased organisational investment in the protection of customer data.

However, a number of pundits feel that fine proposals for reporting breaches are impractical. The TalkTalk breach shows that determining the source of a data breach can be a lengthy process.

AlienVault security advocate, Javvad Malik, said that complexity, disparate systems, and too few staff can each have a hand in delays.

Lack of security staff is an issue that many organisations underestimate. Filling IT security jobs is an essential part of securing a business in the information age, as preventing one breach can ultimately save a company. TalkTalk may have been able to survive a breach, but for many other companies, that wouldn’t be the case.