Some say big data is a threat, while others consider it a saviour. At TELUS, we want to be transparent with our business operations. We want you with us, every step of the way into bettering our next generation. In this technology-driven economy, it is extremely important for us to understand the risks we all take when creating our online presence. To do so, we need to open up about the implications of holding large amounts of data online.

Opportunities with Big Data and TELUS

Our mission at TELUS is to “enable our customers and team members to do what they want easily.” (TELUS, 2018). Operating in the telecommunications industry holds large potential for success. Big data provides a better picture to what you want, and how we can change to help you achieve full efficiency in your everyday lives.

Keeping track of how much each family spends on the internet, what TV packages are most popular and what phone plans are most commonly used helps us in creating representative conclusions in our communities. This information helps us see and understand your preferences, in turn, helping us create better products and services that cater specifically to you. Through TELUS Insights, we can easily receive, organize and interpret de-identified data to help with your personal and business needs.

Threats Around Big Data

With big data, comes a bigger risk of managing, sharing, and protecting private data. Here are two main threats that stem from big data:

1. Data Privacy – Storing data on a network is a threat many businesses, or online uses take. Maintaining data may seem very simple and intuitive. In reality, it is the biggest threat in modern day businesses. We make sure that the data we receive from our customers are fully de-identified, meaning nothing can be traced back to the original user. TELUS Insights is fully protected in real time.
2. Incompetent Analytics and Poor Data Management – Big data is very hard to organize, navigate and interpret. All sorts of data come piling into our database in real time every day and it could be hard to manage. With TELUS’ Geo-Intelligence and Custom Data Programs, we can easily organize and extract specific data we need, when we need it.

Understanding the implications and risks behind companies that hold large data, we can conclude that “customer loyalty is our industry’s ultimate battleground”, (TELUS, 2018). We understand the risk. Knowing this, our team will continue to listen to our customers and innovating, so you guys are happy with our service.

At TELUS, we work towards one single goal: making a better future for our next generations. We are constantly listening, learning, and changing our strategy towards creating a brighter future. In our day and age, connectivity through the internet has yielded tremendous growth and productivity opportunities. Although we want to celebrate this growth, we also need to be aware of the risks behind having an online presence.

On November 1st, 2018, Canada’s PIPEDA regulations came into effect. This new regulation will change privacy concerns for the betterment of all Canadian citizens as it forces companies to notify customers compromised by a data breach. Meaning, Canadian companies like us are legally required to establish and maintain a holistic view of the companies’ privacy policies and preventative measures.

Although we have already been practicing a transparent approach with our customers, here are some reminders on how to keep our privacy safe.

Our Promise to You and Your Family

At TELUS, we know privacy matters to you. As a customer, you are entrusting us with highly valuable personal information. We understand that corporations with big-data have increased risks around privacy. With that, we are committed to respecting your privacy by being transparent with you about the ways we protect your privacy.

As part of our commitment to keeping our customers safe, we intend to implement increased training programs for all our employees that encompass the ideas of data security, online phishing, and how to react if a cyber incident occurs. We will never want to jeopardize your privacy, but we are prepared for action if anything suspicious does occur.

TELUS members will never ask for your log-in password, send unsolicited emails, or send unsolicited requests to download software. We will never ask for your personal information unless necessary.

Keeping Our Families Safe

If we take a look back 10 years ago, thinking about cybersecurity meant downloading a strong antivirus software for our big, hefty desktop computers. Computer owners would occasionally scan their entire computers for any viruses, which meant the computer would slow down and lose efficiency.

With the accelerated introduction of laptops, smartphones, smartwatches, and other smart gear, keeping just the hardware safe is not enough. It’s crazy to think that these innovative products that promised to be an asset to our everyday lives can also turn into a liability in an instant.

Recent study from Redar metadata indicates that over 80% of data breaches occur because of unintentional actions. This means that it is up to both you and I to make sure we are protecting your privacy in the best way we can.

Source: Txmx 2

Here are three ways you can protect your private information:

1. Using a Secured Wi-Fi Network- Public Wi-Fi can make your information accessible to cyber threats because most free Wi-Fi networks aren’t secured. Avoid using public Wi-Fi networks to access sensitive information (e.g. Bank Accounts) as much as possible
2. Creating Strong Passwords – Passwords can make or break your personal privacy. Effective password management is crucial, especially when the account holds banking and other personal information. This is why we recommend all customers use different passwords for all different accounts. To further prevent password sharing or risk of exploitation, you can also change your password every 6 months.
3. Regularly Back Up Data – While it’s important to set up as many preventative measures to strengthen the shield against any incidents, it is equally important to assume the worst-case scenario. By regularly backing up valuable data, you will be able to restore the files you saved. To ensure that you have the latest data you need, make sure you set up weekly or daily automated backups depending on how quick your files change.

We believe that TELUS is only as strong as its communities. It is up to us to protect each other. Together, we can take action.

We are proud to call ourselves Canadian. As a Canadian telecommunications business, our industry is characterized for being heavily reliant on technology as domestic consumers are receptive to offerings through digital channels. For this reason, we expect our business and its customers to embrace technology, as most have been doing so already. However, as we further immerse TELUS in technological business processes to increase efficiency, the vulnerability for cyber-attacks will also increase.

Cyber security is an issue relevant to a wide range of industries that together amount for a substantial portion of the Canadian economy, especially at TELUS. In 2017 alone, Canadian businesses spent approx. $14 billion to prevent, detect and recover from cyber security incidents (Statistics Canada, 2018). Since this issue affects the telecommunications industry and our everyday operations, we will work hard to explain all the factors of cyber security and implications of a data breach to give you a holistic view on how we are working towards a safe future.

Motives Behind Cyber Attacks

According to Statistics Canada in 2017, 70% of cyber attackers’ main motive was financial gain, primarily stealing money and/or demanding ransom.

It’s clear that our customers put a lot of trust in us to by giving access to banking and other personal information. This is why we think it’s extremely important for our company to fully understand and analyze the motives behind cyber incidents. This way, we can best prepare our team for these risks.

The following lists the most common motives behind cyber-attack for a financial incentive:

• Insight into an organization’s financial statement and position
• Access to your customer’s credit card and financial details
• Breach sensitive data and/ or intellectual property
• Steal login credentials
• Access to the IT structure of your organization

Despite the fact that the most common motives behind cyber-attacks is financial gain, there’s also a smaller percentage of people who commit cyber-attacks that are motivated by non-lucrative reasons, the main one being identity theft. Some individuals will commit cyber-attacks in order to gain personal information, demonstrate technical ability for a personal sense of accomplishments, or for political reasons.

Now it’s up to you guys to decide what’s worse, stealing money or stealing your identity?

A general understanding of the most common motives behind cyber-attacks allows TELUS and our customers to identify which organizational and personal information we need to protect. This step is critical to properly allocate resources into effective and efficient mitigation risks associated with cyber incidents.

After knowing these motives, please check out our blog post, Secure Your Privacy, Prevent Identity Theft, and Feel Safe on the Internet, for some tips on how you can protect yourself from cyber threats.

Cyber Security as a Source of Opportunities: The Other Side of The Coin

Cyber security in an organization is not only the IT specialists’ responsibility. At TELUS, it is everyone’s responsibility to practice safe privacy. We train all of our employees to follow company safety protocols and have prepared a strong action plan for the worst-case scenario.

With the information we gathered, our team anticipates that the federal government is obtaining and mining relevant data from cyber related incidents in order to establish innovative government programs, such as the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. This particular program aims to combat cyber-attack attempts that threaten public safety and find solutions for safer interaction between Canadian businesses and consumers.

These programs will increase demand for cyber security roles in the Canadian economy. Government programs will not only increase Canadian cyber security job supply for government roles, but also for organizations that will have to comply with the changing cyber security compliance regulations the government plans to enforce.

Source: Towards Data Science

Our advice to our valued customers is not to panic. Instead, look at the issue on a more optimistic perspective as a reminder that this growing risk may also generate opportunities for Canadians to add value to the workforce by finding ways to mitigate cyber incidents and attacks.

As for those who didn’t intend to pursue a career in cyber security and technology, basic knowledge about how to detect and prevent cyber-attacks will gradually become a minimum requirement in the workplace. TELUS will continue to openly communicate with our customers of our projects, policies, and plans for the future and we encourage our customers communicate with us as well. This is an opportunity to get involved- initiate the conversation and together, we can contribute to the safety of our community.

Welcome to TELUS Blogs!

At TELUS, we are committed to improving the lives and the world in which we live in. Through technology, we aim to spark social change in areas of health, education, the environment, and our communities.

TELUS Blogs is a communicative channel to further connect with our customers- you guys. In this platform, we want to bridge the divide between the business and the consumers. Here we encourage open discussion on cyber security risks and concerns that may affect Canadians.

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