PwC Australia creates central cyber security, digital trust team

PwC Australia has created a new business unit bringing together cyber, digital trust and digital law teams from across the firm to bolster the services it offers clients navigating the cyber security and regulatory landscape.

The team comprises 15 partners and 260 staff across Australia, and the consulting firm wants to double that headcount by 2024.

The new multidisciplinary team comes under the banner of 'cyber security and digital trust' and is led by Rick Crethar, cyber leader and global crisis centre leader in Australia. 

Other key appointments include Mike Cerny, head of cyber security; Peter Malan, head of digital trust; and Cameron Whittfield, head of digital law, as well as Nicola Nicol who is leading the development of the group’s strategic growth plan. 

Previously PwC’s three businesses - consulting, financial advisory and assurance - each had its own cyber security and digital trust capability.

The combined group offers clients scale, a broader range of services and a single point of contact for various cybersecurity issues. 

"When an organisation experiences a cyber attack they typically need to engage cyber incident response expertise to manage the technological and stakeholder response, external legal counsel to manage privilege and privacy concerns, as well as digital risk expertise to help with customer or third party management for the remediation activities once the incident is brought under control," Crethar told iTnews. 

"Our great strength as a firm is our breadth and depth of capability across all these areas.

“We have merged these capabilities into one ‘cyber security and digital trust’ team so we can better deliver services in response to our clients’ expectations.

"Cybersecurity is a fast-moving sector with continuously evolving threats and opportunities which need constant innovation and ingenuity to manage them.”  

As well as its traditional cyber security capabilities, including responding to cyber attacks and conducting vulnerability assessments, the group will also offer data governance and legal services. 

For example, digital trust covers data risk and privacy, and services include data and privacy assessments, data frameworks, classification and governance, as well as digital risk management.