TalkTalk boss Dido Harding: Customers “trust us more” after handling of cyber attack
Dido Harding, the chief executive of TalkTalk, believes her company has improved as a result of last year’s cyber attack.
More than one year on from the hack, which affected 157,000 customers, Harding told City PM she does not believe the recovery process will ever end.
Speaking shortly after Tesco Bank was rocked by a cyber hack of its own, Harding highlighted the fact most companies suffer from hacks but do not report it, adding: “This is everywhere.”
Read more: TalkTalk profits soar as telecoms giant continues cyber attack recovery
Asked how long TalkTalk, which reported soaring profits this morning, will take to recover, Harding said: “I don’t actually think it will stop. Because we learnt some really important lessons as a result of the cyber attack.
“Clearly we learnt that everyone, including us, needs to take cyber security more seriously, and that’s not going to go away. But we also learnt that if you’re open and honest with your customers everything works out alright.
“I don’t want to forget that, unlearn it. And for my business, from our call centre agents all the way up through the company, it’s a hugely affirming thing to learn.”
Read more: TalkTalk profits soar as telecoms giant continues cyber attack recovery
She added that, as a result of the cyber hacking process and recovery, TalkTalk customers “trust us more”.
“They think, in adversity, we tried our damnedest to look after them,” she said.
“Although I wouldn’t wish to go through that experience again, and nor would I want my customers to go through it or my shareholders, actually what has come out of it is a much better TalkTalk.”