KCOM Regulatory News (KCOM)

Security and resilience of our networks and IT systems

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Our networks and IT systems are key to all that we do and are crucial in delivering service to our customers. The risk in the year has increased due to an increase in external security threats, including larger volume of attacks intended to create a denial of service.

As the risk has increased, so has our work to mitigate the risk. We have implemented increased security and we continue to closely monitor any attempted attacks and take actions where necessary to ensure we have robust security in place. We have held the ISO 27001 Information Security Management standard since 2007 and also comply with other security standards as required by our customers.

Accuracy, security and confidentiality of customer data

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Security of customer data, whether it belongs to a business or an individual, is of paramount importance to our customers and therefore to us. The potential risk to data security has increased in the year as a result of the increased volume of external attacks seen across all industries.

We have rolled out mandatory information security training and data protection training to all our people and have a clear Data Governance policy in place, which contains specific handling guidelines for different types of data. Any incidents, however minor, are investigated and control improvements implemented where necessary to ensure that we keep our customer data secure at all times.

Customer service and delivery

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Delivering exceptional service to our customers is one of our key strategic aims and therefore the risk of failing to do this is a key risk for us to mitigate.

We have continued to invest in our people and our systems to ensure that we have the right people in the right roles and that they have the right tools to provide an exceptional service. We also work closely with our partners to ensure that they are aligned with us in delivering the best service possible.

Recruitment and retention of the right people

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Recruiting and retaining the right people is crucial for the success of the Group in meeting our objectives. This applies not only to being able to recruit people who embody our values, but also to recruiting people with specific technical skills where needed, some of which may be in short supply. It also involves developing the skills in-house and creating internal mobility around deploying those skills.

Our People Strategy is focused on creating a workplace which not only attracts top talent but also retains those people that are key to delivering on our objectives. During the year we have focused on communicating total reward packages to our people to ensure that everyone understands their total reward. We have also been creating a competency framework across the Group, which will enable us to create more career opportunities for individuals internally and to respond to our customers with greater agility.

Reliance on key third party partners and suppliers

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Our business model means that we are reliant on several key partners to deliver service to our customers and to provide the equipment that we need to deliver the right solutions; such as BT, Comms Care, ForgeRock, Cisco, Avaya, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and IBM.

We have dedicated teams to work alongside our key partners and we monitor all of our partnerships closely so that any potential issues are identified and resolved before becoming significant. We have also multiple partners in key risk areas to mitigate the risk in the event of failure of one partner.