It was 2007. The era of data breaches had begun, and Visa was not only a prime target, but it had to play the detective, too — sifting through fraud reports to figure out the origin and the scope of every breach.
The game was unwinnable. The only way to succeed was to change the rules.
“When I first came to Visa, I was told that if we built a 10-foot wall, the bad guys will build a 12-foot ladder and steal our wares, which was payment data,” said Ellen Richey who had just joined the card network as its first chief enterprise risk officer.
Two years ago, Richey became Visa’s vice chairman and chief risk officer, propelled to this role by more than a decade of work that fundamentally changed how the average consumer makes a payment. Richey plans to retire this summer, ending a 40-year career in law and risk management.
In her time at Visa, Richey set out to erase the mindset that its network was a Fort Knox that needed to be protected with stronger walls. Most data security researchers were fascinated with building a firewall that criminals could not get over, Richey said.
Ellen Richey speaks during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in…
