Deborah Guild

EVP & Head of Technology, Pnc Financial

Search every verified Deborah Guild interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a 2019 interview, Debbie Guild, then Chief Security Officer at PNC Bank, discussed her approach to cybersecurity and the convergence of security functions. Guild stated that in 2017 she created a "capital S security function" that brought together cyber, fraud, and physical security into a single threat intelligence operation. She described her mission as "together building trust" and emphasized that security must be conducted in concert with customers, employees, shareholders, and communities. Guild noted that the U.S. financial ecosystem is part of "defending America" and that a compromise of its confidentiality, availability, or integrity would be "a bad day for us as a country." Guild discussed the evolution of the attack surface, which she said includes data centers, servers, 55,000 employees, and third parties. She described her program as keeping "the good stuff from going out and the bad stuff from coming in." On cloud security, she advised treating the cloud as "perimeter-less protection" and identifying risk appetite rather than relying on perimeter defenses. She also highlighted challenges with Internet of Things devices, noting that patching protocols and hardening guidelines often do not exist for them. Guild spoke about her efforts to support women in technology, including identifying young women with an aptitude for computing and providing a community of support, which she said led to 92% of those identified staying with computing.