On Monday, Wells Fargo announced that it had appointed Rich Baich from the Deloitte & Touche consultancy to be its CISO. He will oversee the company’s security vision, strategy, and programs designed to secure customer and company information and will begin work later this summer.
At the consulting firm, Baich led the global cyber threat and vulnerability management practice. Prior to this, he served in security positions with PricewaterhouseCoopers, ChoicePoint, and the FBI.
This is the first CISO for the fourth largest US bank, according to a report by Reuters, quoting a Wells Fargo spokeswoman. While Baich worked as the CISO at ChoicePoint, the company suffered a data breach in 2005 involving access to personal information on 145,000 customers, the newswire explained.
In an interview at the time, Baich said the breach was the result of fraud rather than hacking. Individuals posing as legitimate businesses accessed customer data, including social security numbers and credit histories, the report said.
“We are fortunate to be able to add Rich’s expertise to our team to carry us forward in the management of information security with an emphasis on safeguarding customer and company information”, said Martin Davis, head of enterprise technology services, technology, and operations at Wells Fargo. “Our IT systems, products and services play a critical role in the customer experience”, he added.