Commsrisk is a website that reports on the risks faced by electronic communications providers and their customers. We cover a broad spectrum of risk and assurance challenges because we see the connections between them; customer privacy is undermined by security weaknesses, technology exploits are invented by criminals, disgruntled employees are more likely to collude in fraud, and so on. Our content is written by industry insiders with a first-hand understanding of the impact that risks can have on customers, services and profits.
It is also vital to pitch information at the right level. When it comes to insights about risks, most of us are presented with too much or too little information. We might plough through detail when implementing new systems, but have nobody to warn us about new initiatives from governments, competitors or suppliers. Commsrisk seeks to address these challenges by giving straightforward, regular, and digestible updates on major developments in risk, assurance, audit, fraud, analytics, security, data protection, regulation, technology, intellectual property and privacy.
In short, we know what you need to know, and what it feels like to track and absorb huge amounts of intelligence in the limited time available. We seek to provide an indispensable source of information for thousands of professionals working in the global communications sector, and for those members of the public with a keen interest in protecting their right to affordable and secure communication.
This website is the latest incarnation of what was previously called ‘the talkRA project’, a collaboration of like-minded professionals instigated by Eric Priezkalns. When we started, we all worked for telcos full-time, and our only goal was to improve the exchange of information by voluntarily sharing what we knew, whilst encouraging others to emulate us. That project spawned a website, a book, and a loyal following. It has also fed into the development of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), a nonprofit association for the same community. The experience gained through running Commsrisk has been vital to the development of RAG’s online services.
Commsrisk is owned by Eric’s company, Revenue Protect Limited. We are grateful to our advertisers whose contributions cover the cost of running this website. For the sake of fairness, all advertising spaces are sold through half-yearly auctions. Businesses that want to advertise on Commsrisk can learn more here.
Approximately half of the content is written by Eric, but we also rely upon an extensive network of good and honest professionals who volunteer their insights. When they write for Commsrisk, they retain their copyright. A full statement on the status of intellectual property rights relating to this website and its content can be found here.
Commsrisk is an information exchange, and increasing complexity means we will all need to absorb even more information in future. Our goal is to continue to develop Commsrisk into a crucial resource that serves the needs of its loyal and expanding audience. We hope that you find our content useful, informative, and even entertaining at times. And we invite you to help us by sharing your insights too.
About Eric Priezkalns, Commsrisk Editor
I am the editor of Commsrisk, and a quick glance at the archives confirms I have written about all sorts of risk and assurance challenges since I began blogging in 2006. When I started blogging, it was a new and peculiar thing to do; few have taken to it like I have. Back then, I knew there were people working all around in the globe in niche roles, everywhere from Nairobi to New York, Bangalore to Budapest, who could help each other by sharing their specialist insights, although they were unlikely to meet in person. I needed to know more to do my job properly, and whilst I spent plenty of time swapping emails and making phone calls to peers around the globe, the internet offered an obvious solution to the problem of connecting widely distributed specialists and pooling their collective wisdom.
After a couple of years of blogging, my posts were rolled into the new talkRA website that I launched with help from lots of friends. After six years of curating that site, Commsrisk became my new home on the internet. I love the job of editing it, and connecting with contributors and readers all over the planet.
When my friends and I started blogging, none of us had any idea where it would lead us. Some people said we were crazy, and that nobody would visit our website. I am happy to report that my involvement in this project has given me an amazing learning experience, introduced me to countless new friends, and been the proudest accomplishment of my career.
I tell people I am retired now. When away from my computer, I prefer walking in the countryside to the environment of fluorescent lights, air conditioning, and seemingly endless meetings endured by most telco professionals. After two decades working as a consultant and manager for telcos, I was ready for escape. My professional journey took me from Enterprise Risk Services consulting in Deloitte’s London office, to Director of Risk Management at Qatar Telecom. I saw a lot of telcos, and a lot of countries, in the years between.
All my experience taught me that the true professional never feels they have learned enough. When you attain a deep understanding of one subject, you ask if you know enough about related topics. If you can successfully stand back and see the whole landscape, you also appreciate how much detail remains unexamined, whenever and wherever you choose to zoom in.
We can only learn and improve by accessing the knowledge in other people’s heads, and finding ways to cooperate for mutual advantage. I have the greatest respect for the work being done by niche risk experts dotted around the communications sector, and I appreciate the scale of the challenges they face. If I can help them work together to overcome the issues they face in common, I would consider that a pleasure and a privilege.