By: Maria Moynihan
In less than a year, my information has been compromised twice by a data breach. The companies involved varied significantly by way of size and type, yet both reacted expeditiously to inform me of the incident. As much as I appreciated the quick response and notification, I couldn’t help but wonder how well prepared we all are to handle these types of incidents within our own organizations.
I recently read somewhere that data breaches are to be expected – like death and taxes. Can this be true? A recent Ponemon Institute Study, 2013 Cost of a Data Breach, highlighted alarming statistics around the typical impact a breach has on an organization. With costs amounting to approximately $5.4M and impact to brands ranging anywhere from $184M to $330M in losses, organizations cannot afford to pass breaches off as inevitable.
Organizations must tighten their security standards, understand the evolving data breach environment and ensure their response plans are continuously enhanced to address emerging issues. To better understand what may lie ahead, Experian has developed six key predictions for how concerns about data breaches will evolve:
1. Data breach cost will be down – but still impactful
The cost per record of a data breach will continue to decline, however security incidents and other breaches may still cause significant business disruption if not properly managed.
2. Will the Cloud and Big Data = Big International Breaches?
With the rise of the cloud, data is now moving seamlessly across borders making the potential for complex, international breaches more possible.
3. Healthcare Breaches: Opening the Floodgates
With the addition of the Healthcare Insurance Exchanges, millions of individuals will be introduced into the healthcare system and as a result, will increase the vulnerability of the already susceptible healthcare industry.
4. A Surge in Adoption of Cyber Insurance
Many companies will look beyond investing in technology to protect against attacks and towards the insurance market to manage financial ramifications of breaches.
5. Breach Fatigue – Rise in Consumer Fraud?
As the number of reported breaches in the media increases and the frequency of notifications that consumers receive grow, they may become apathetic towards the subject, thereby exposing themselves to greater risk.
6. Beyond the Regulatory Check Box
State regulators and law enforcement will turn a new leaf this year, devoting significant attention to helping organizations better manage breaches.
What is your organization doing to improve its data breach preparedness plan? Check out our 2014 Data Breach Industry Forecast and guide to handling data breach response.
Check out other related content on data breach resolution.
