Colt welcomes new Chief Information Security Officer to its leadership team

Colt Technology Services has appointed Ashish Surti to the position of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), reporting directly to Chief Technology Officer Rajiv Datta. Ashish will be responsible for Colt’s overall information and cyber security strategy, and will head up Colt’s Computer Security Incident Response team.

As a provider of network services for some of the world’s biggest brands, a responsible focus on information security forms a core part of Colt’s industry leading customer experience.

Under the direction of Surti, Colt will strengthen its information security strategy by continually enhancing and embeddng cyber risk management and logical security practices into all company activities. As CISO, Surti will lead the assessment, evaluation, prioritisation and mitigation of the internal and external security threat to Colt’s products, network infrastructure, business information systems.

This most recent senior strategic appointment is part of Colt’s recruitment drive to bolster its leadership team and focus on delivering a new standard of customer experience within the network industry. The drive for highly talented, experienced individuals comes as Colt plans to invest more than €200m into the business in 2017 and celebrates its 25th anniversary year.

“With the ever present risk of cyber-attack and increasing pressure from global threats, secure network connectivity matters now more than ever to organisations across all markets and industries,” said Surti. “We deliver that secure connectivity in a simple, agile fashion that puts the customer in control and frees up their resources, allowing them to focus on the threat landscape relevant to their business.”

A highly respected security expert with over 15 years’ experience, Surti joins Colt from TSB Bank where he was the first CISO. At TSB Bank, he was accountable for duties including information risk management, security consultancy & architecture and cyber intelligence & response. Surti’s experience with financial markets will prove invaluable with understanding the demands of some of Colt’s core customers, for which secure connectivity and adhesion to increasingly stringent governance is a critical requirement.

“It’s the people within a business that deliver on the strategic vision, enabling our customers to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world,” said Datta. “Cyber security is a critical consideration for organisations of all sizes and across all sectors, and having talented and experienced leaders within our team is essential for us to maintain our own security and that of our customers’ networks.”