Speaker: Tom Ilube, Chief Executive of Garlik

About this event

With the rapid growth of the internet and the increased risks of identity fraud and cyber crime which go along with it, there is an ever growing concern about safeguarding one’s personal information.

However, much of the personal information in the public arena is information we ourselves have posted online, including on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Consumers need to be aware that the information we post online can be accessed, and potentially used, by millions of people worldwide.

The internet is a great playground, offering new and exciting ways to interact with people across the globe. However a balance needs to be struck between seizing the advantages social networking sites and the like can offer for work and life whilst protecting personal information from identity fraud.

A study of cybercrime conducted in 2006 by Garlik and criminologists 1871 revealed the quantity of personal data many of us are happy to display online, such as our date of birth and address. The study also asked fraudsters how much they could make from stealing someone’s identity and the result was £85,000. 

With the social networking phenomenon looking unlikely to diminish in popularity the issue of personal identity is one of growing, and pressing, relevance.

About the Speaker

Tom Ilube is Chief Executive Officer of Garlik, a consumer company pioneering a range of services to help give people real power over their personal information in the digital world, using ground breaking semantic web technologies.

Previously Tom Ilube was Chief Information Officer and a member of the Executive Committee at the World's largest online bank, Egg plc.

Egg plc was launched in 1998 and Tom was the original Launch Programme Manager. Today Egg is one of the World’s largest and most innovative online banks with over 4 million customers.

In 2005 Tom left Egg plc to found Garlik, in partnership with Mike Harris, the Founding CEO of Egg plc.

Prior to Egg, Tom was Chief Executive of Lost Wax for six years, a software company that he founded in 1996. The company was recognised as one of the UK's most innovative technology firms, being listed as a top technology firm by The Sunday Times, Computing Magazine, Real Business and others.

Tom's technology career spans 20 years with a range of blue chip organisations in London including Goldman Sachs International, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, The London Stock Exchange, Cap Gemini and British Airways.