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Comment by gerhardi | Hacker News Reader

"Ironically, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. is the world’s No. 1 security consulting group (at least, for now)."

From what I have seen, it really seems that the shoemakers aren't usually wearing shoes themselves. My experience is that the internal systems for example in Big Consultancies are often something that the companies wouldn't be proud to design/deliver for their clients.

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The profit requirements are harsh in the world of medium and large consultancy firms. Internal IT is a cost center that is probably understaffed, underpaid and needs to operate at lowest cost possible.

I know stories of departments / teams having their own rogue infrastructure because official internal IT resources are so ineffective.

It also doesn’t help that, if someone is good, everyone is incentivized to turn that person into a billable asset.

I bet their accounting practices are just as screwed up.

>> I bet their accounting practices are just as screwed up.

The difference is that proper accounting has laws behind it. If your accounting practices are crooked enough, executives can go to jail and/or be personally liable for losses. If there were similar information security laws, I suspect we'd have far fewer breaches like this.

Hey, can I send you an email? "Rogue" vs established IT in consultancy firms is something I'd like to learn about, and would love to ask you a few questions. My email is in my profile (can't find yours, hence the public request!)

Right. Consider the consulting costs, billed internally, to do all the things. It would destroy margin to spend the same on yourself as your largest clients spend on you.

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