Think your organization is safe from data breaches?
Consider these facts:
● The average cost to a company in 2008 for a data breach was over $6 million dollars which only included rebuilding their brand, rebuilding their image and attempting to retain customers.
● Based on approximately 40 companies that experienced a breach of consumer information, the average cost per consumer /customer record was $200. Considering the fact that each breach averaged a little over 30,000 records the cost adds up quickly.
● Sadly, over 80% of the companies surveyed had already had a breach prior to the 2008 incident.
The $200 per record are from such expenses as setting up credit monitoring for customers, helpdesk hotlines to field consumer inquiries and of course consumer notification. What the $200 does not cover was the damage that can occur to a company stock price.
Last year a major credit & debit card processor, Heartland Payment Systems, came clean about a major breach affecting millions of consumers. Their stock price fell over 40% to a 52 week low.
The whole point of this is that consumers do not like it when they hear a company has had a data breach. Let’s face it, people don’t like it when they see that a company has lost their personal data. It shows a lack of concern for security and or privacy.
In this economy can you as an organization really afford to lose customers because of a data breach. Get yourself an IT Audit and see where you’re vulnerable, and yes you probably are in several areas. In today’s world, you can get top Security & Risk Auditing services at a fraction of the cost of what the major Auditing firms charge. Bigger is no longer better.
If you could hear the stories I hear from my Security & Risk contacts you would call for an Auditing firm to be at your door tomorrow.
Remember, getting your company name all over the Internet and nightly news is great unless it’s for a data breach of customer personal information.
By: Wils Bell, President
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wilsbell
SecurityHeadhunter.com, Inc.
Information Security Recruitment Since 1990
Phone: 407-365-2404
eFax: 407-956-4976
Email: Bell@SecurityHeadhunter.com
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