the Dotcom experience.....
This is all entirely predictable. Talk Talk's IT is a direct descendant of the original dotcom boom and bust. I worked in a start-up then and the attitude was to deliver fast and first. Procedures and methodologies were for wusses and losers.
The founder of Carphone Warehouse, Dunstone, was an entrepreneur who operated this way too. He saw a gap in the market and exploited it. Again speed and being first were critical, He moved his company into being an ISP when he saw the money to be made. His IT boss was told to 'make it so', despite the IT department having no previous skills or background in the field. Growth then became the supreme directive. The IT Department were instructed to ramp up customer provision as fast as they could to keep up with a huge marketing push. I attended an IT conference where a Carphone Warehouse IT Manager told the story of their move into being an ISP.
It is no surprise at all that security played catch-up in all this. If the firm was unwilling to put money into customer service, as evidenced by customers' experience, was it ever particularly likely that they were investing in security either?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
