Protect Your Organization with Improved Incident Response
A well-planned incident response capability can protect your organization from external and internal threats, no matter where work takes place.
The consequences of data breaches are severe and only getting worse. That’s the takeaway from a new study which shows just how painful leaks of sensitive information can be for everyone involved. More data is being compromised than ever before, and companies are paying the price.
Today, every company is a technology company.
While managing data via technology offers efficiencies and insights, this also means that every company is at risk of a data breach. Whether you’re a financial organization, governmental agency, or small mom-and-pop retail shop, anyone with sensitive data could be a target.
The consequences are getting more dire, too. This year, the global average cost of a data breach is up 6.4 percent to $3.86 million, according to a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM. The average cost for each lost or stolen record containing confidential information also increased by 4.8 percent, up to nearly $150 per record.
And that’s only the average. At the top end are what the study calls “mega breaches”, involving between 1 million and 50 million lost records. In this stratosphere, the costs are said to range from $40 million to a whopping $350 million.
To arrive at the findings, the study’s authors interviewed IT and Security professionals at nearly 500 companies that had suffered a data breach. They analyzed the many different costs associated with breaches, including incident investigation, recovery, legal and regulatory activity, PR to rehabilitate the brand, and lost business through customer turnover. Though less tangible, one-third of the cost can be attributed to lost business alone, according to the study.
Of course, the financial costs are not the only issue. There’s also the potential for reputational damage and legal headaches that can stretch far beyond the immediate consequences of a breach. Ultimately, the final cost can be hard to pin down. Dozens of factors affect the cost of a breach, and it’s impossible to know the total price tag until the dust settles—a process that can take years.
No matter what protection, encryption, or security controls your organization has in place, there's always a chance your sensitive information might be part of the next major data breach. Given this reality, it’s best to plan for a breach as though you know it’s going to happen. According to the study, there are a few things companies can do to minimize the damage if they do fall victim to a breach.
If you want to avoid fines, customer churn, and reputational damage, you’ll need some help. LogicGate’s IT Risk Management platform is a robust, scalable system that automates risk management processes across your organization. Implementing a tool such as LogicGate can help your IT Security team manage critical assets, define potential risks, assess threat levels, and put processes and controls in place to mitigate those risks and threats. LogicGate empowers your organization to prepare for and protect against data breaches, ultimately reducing potential risks and costs, and enabling your business to focus on business.
A well-planned incident response capability can protect your organization from external and internal threats, no matter where work takes place.
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