“Breach” has more than one meaning when it applies to cyber security. For example, you could have a data breach or a privacy breach. You can also have a physical breach, an electronic breach, or a skimming breach. Breaches can come from malware, phishing, denial-of-service, password attacks and through ransomware. One of the most common headaches organizations have to deal with are data breaches. How can you protect your data?
How a Breach Affects Your Business
Breaches can result in the loss of customers’ personal information, such as credit card information, social security numbers, etc., which is why there are fines involved with an intrusion. A breach is costly and may hurt the reputation of a company, but the fines levied also leave a lasting sting.
When a company experiences a breach, it must provide specific details about who was impacted and what was stolen. If they don’t follow the correct procedures, they get fined on top of whatever the original fine was. For example, a company based in London misled its investors about a breach that occurred in 2018 and was fined $1 million for it.
Breaches are also costly due to downtime and loss of business. IBM said when it was breached earlier in 2022, the company lost $1.42 million in new business acquisition, downtime, and customer churn.
The following are some of the more notable fines in recent years:
Didi Global: $1.19 billion for violating network security law, data security law, and the personal information protection act.
Amazon: $877 million for violating a European law called the General Data Protection Regulation.
Equifax: $575 million for losing the financial information of nearly 150 million people.
T-Mobile: $350 million in a class action lawsuit following a data breach that impacted 77 million people.
And while the fines hurt, the bigger challenge is rebuilding the public’s trust after a data breach, which is why companies of all sizes need to do what they can to improve their cyber security position.
Outsourcing Assistance
Many companies continue to ignore the vulnerabilities that could make them an easy target of a data breach. In some cases, it’s the result of good intentions that get crowded out by the daily demands on the IT team. By working with a third party, you can leave the IT tasks up to professionals while you work on operating your business.
That’s what we provide at Independent Connections. From traditional and hybrid infrastructure to secure cloud solutions to managed services, we’re providing what organizations need to keep malicious actors out. We believe that the information and underlying information systems should be protected from unauthorized use, downtime, and vulnerabilities. Contact us and learn more about how we mitigate risks.