“For me, it’s important that my work has meaning. Elisa has an important tole to play as part of Finland’s critical social infrastructure”, says Riku.
His main role is in developing Elisa’s internal data security with the Cyber Security Management team, so that Elisa’s services are more fault-tolerant and can recover better from any disturbances. For Elisa, the most important targets to protect include the telecommunications networks and the massive databases of personal information, including one of Finland’s most comprehensive customer information databases.
“Our unit helps the business teams evaluate cybersecurity risks, such as in data handling and file transfers, as well as the cloud environment. We want security to be treated as a normal part of business operations, rather than being viewed as a big, restrictive red stamp”, Riku adds.
What new doors has Elisa opened for this former cybersecurity consultant?
Earlier in his career, Riku worked, among other things, in administrative security consulting, auditing and penetration testing (when customers order cyberattacks to test their own systems). What is it like to work at Elisa compared to his previous work as a consultant?
“In consulting work, I mainly worked on short-term, specific projects, and I never got to see the development proposals in the implementation phase. At Elisa, I like the fact that I can see things through right to the end”, Riku explains.
Riku is also involved in running a cyber community of around 150 Elisians who all work in data security in one way or another. The goal of this community is to share news and experience from the field with each other. In the most recent meeting, they discussed issues such as common scams and the findings of a report from the National Bureau of Investigation into cybercrime.
