“There’s no such thing as perfect security. There will always be weakness or vulnerability – ultimately everyone can be breached. But it’s about how you were compromised that is becoming increasingly important. In this respect, we’ve seen the conversation move on and pay a lot more attention to the circumstances that lead to a breach – was it really unfortunate or really incompetent?

"There’s two dimensions to this. If you were a company that genuinely had been doing the right thing and went to responsible lengths to protect yourself but did, ultimately, get breached then you were just really unlucky. But then there’s Equifax, and that’s where we have a big schism.

"How you respond to a breach also shows who you are as a company. If you own up to what happened, take responsibility and notify your customers in a reasonable timeframe. Then I honestly think public opinion will sway in your favour because you were doing the best you could.

"Whereas companies that didn’t take reasonable precautions, didn’t follow up on risks or vulnerabilities, didn’t own up when a breach occurred – and lied or masqueraded the whole thing as a bug bounty exercise – like we’ve seen recently. That’s a company that’s in a different position. They are doing all the wrong things.”