Noopur Davis: Working Hard Behind The Scenes To Protect Comcast's Customers

As SVP and Chief Product and Information Security Officer at Comcast, Noopur Davis leads the team that’s helping to develop a more secure environment for our customers.

Q: How and why is it important to incorporate security into product development?

A: There’s nothing more important than our customers’ safety and security. That’s why our security team partners with our developers as they’re building products, making sure that security is top of mind throughout the entire process – from design to development to deployment. During design, we look at security from all different angles to determine potential vulnerabilities and how to best protect against them. You wouldn’t try to change the infrastructure of a building after it’s already been built. We take a similar approach, always making sure that our products are secure the day they’re released.

Q: What are technology providers like Comcast doing to address security challenges?

A: Comcast does a lot of security work behind the scenes – providing continuous monitoring using tools like automatic updates to the modems and gateways customers lease from us and our malware detection service.

There are also some easy steps people can take to help make our networks safer from hackers, malware, and other cyber threats, including using security software to add another layer of protection and always promptly installing any updates from computer, software, phone, tablet and other Internet-connected devices. Maintaining what we like to call “good password hygiene” is also very important. Try to use long, strong passwords, and use different passwords for different accounts in case one password is somehow compromised.

Q: What opportunities are there for women in technology at Comcast?

A: We’re making it a priority to recruit and invest in highly qualified women for all of our technical positions – from cyber security to engineering to product design. We’re looking at how we hire women in tech and also how we retain and promote them. Having a background in network or software is essential. From there we can teach people the skills they need to work in cyber security. I honestly believe that technology is one of the best careers for women. There are so many opportunities and it’s an incredibly creative and collaborative field.