TalkTalk’s chief executive Baroness Harding is to step down in the wake of poor handling of a 2015 data breach and a subsequent record fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office. TalkTalk is getting a shake-up at the top, following the announcement that Baroness Dido Harding is to step down as the company’s chief executive from May this year.
Chief executive at the company for seven years, Baroness Harding’s tenure at the company was not without controversy. Two major security breaches in 2015 while under her watch were bad enough, before it transpired that the company was at the very least ignoring industry best practices and at worst breaking UK and European laws on the protection of consumer data. ‘ It wasn’t encrypted, nor are you legally required to encrypt it, ‘ Baroness Harding famously — and entirely inaccurately — said in the wake of the second breach. ‘ We have complied with all of our legal obligations in terms of storing of financial information.
