Friday, 22 August 2014 Blog ehdf

Impact Of Data Breach On Business

In an era where we have put more of our lives and businesses online, data breach and stolen information have become common words. In fact, cyber-crime is growing at an enormous pace: in one of the studies conducted by Ponemon Institute in 2014, it was revealed that the average cost of a global data breach increased 15 per cent last year.

The same study highlighted that the maximum data breach cost among the Middle East companies was $12.35 million and the minimum data breach was $400,000. It was also revealed that among the Middle East companies surveyed, the ‘lost business’ on average accounted for nearly half the total cost of all data breaches over the long term.

All this clearly indicates that the impact of data breach can be catastrophic. Below, we highlight the major impact of data breach on businesses:

Customers:
Customers suffer the most because of data breach as their privacy and all the sensitive information is at stake. The trust the customer shows in the company gets shattered and it is definitely not a great situation to be in!

Reputation:
After the breach, losing trust of customers is the first blow to the business, but what comes next is even more threatening—your reputation in the market gets tarnished.

Financial Loss:
When customers start talking about your business’ compromised IT security, getting a negative response from the market is inevitable. This adversely affects the business and results in huge financial losses. Another major concern is the impact on shareholders.

We recommend the following to prevent data breach:
– Ensure that your employees are vigilant and change their passwords regularly
– Install and use effective and latest malware solutions
– It is important to know that a high proportion of data leaks occur from mobile devices. Provide training and technical support to mobile workers
– Always use virtual data stores to share important information
– Understand your business environment: data classification, access rights and environment risks
– Establish a comprehensive breach preparedness plan
– Conduct a periodic risk assessment
– Fine-tune security and information management
– Hire a third-party corporate breach and data security expert to analyze the level of risk and exposure.