As the recession continues to bite and firms look at ways of cutting corners on spending, it is vital companies don’t scrimp on protecting their data assets.
While weakening economic conditions are forcing organizations across the US to cut costs, the increase of both external and internal data breaches re-iterates the importance of data protection.
Companies that cut corners regarding data protection risk fines and a decline in profits, as well as detrimental effects on reputation and customer-retention levels.
According to a Gartner study, the cost of a sensitive data breach will increase by 20% in 2009, as breaches become less opportunist and more targeted.
Despite this, research has revealed that three quarters of US businesses do not have a data-loss contingency plan in place.
Last week, Bank of Ireland reported further customer data loss after a USB drive was declared missing. This follows the disappearance of data from 31,000 customers earlier this year, when four of the bank’s laptops were stolen.
Organizations must take action to prevent potentially crippling damage to the business. By recognizing the value of customer data and taking proactive steps to protect it, companies can mimimise associated side effects of loss, such as reputational damage.
Data protection is not a nice-to-have but a must.
All organizations, public or private, should be implementing encryption policies, training their staff and third-party agencies in how to protect data, and never allowing sensitive material to go off-site without safety measures in place.
The financial and reputational cost of a data breach is increasing exponentially, and both the public and private sectors are already in the dock when it comes to data protection.
Effective data protection costs very little, so organizations need to see through the recession to the real cost when something goes wrong.
The Internet is vital to today’s small business. Unfortunately, the dangers posed by viruses and hackers can jeopardize privacy and productivity and erode customer trust. In an ideal world, small businesses would have around-the-clock network protection from an experienced Information Technology (IT) team. In reality, the small business owner faces 24/7 confusion and worry about a network attack because he or she is the IT team.