Are You Prepared to Prevent AND Tackle a Breach?
No business is completely immune to data breaches. Despite the best measures for improving IT security, strengthening firewalls, and sensitizing the staff, you may have to deal with the fallout of a digital hack or a physical theft. If confidential, sensitive, or protected data or information falls in the hands of cybercriminals or fraudsters, you may face:
- An immediate financial blow due to the data loss and recovery related expenses
- A dent in your reputation and brand image, especially if it is a major breach
- A negative impact on your efforts to retain existing customers and acquire new ones
- Expensive and tedious legal tangles, depending on the privacy protection laws applicable to your industry.
At TITAN Mobile Shredding, we support a cross-industry client base with our range of secure data destruction services, as well as cost-effective breach reporting tools. Our specialists explain how adopting a systematic and structured data breach management approach can help your business stay afloat in the face of the ever-evolving hack and breach threats.
Key Benefits of Instituting a Formal Data Breach Management Plan
Whether it is a malicious act or human negligence, if your business faces a data breach, you have very limited time to respond to the incident. In addition to promptly identifying and plugging the leak, you may also have to:
- Conduct a comprehensive investigation to determine the true extent of the breach
- Notify relevant third parties and regulatory institutions
- Alert impacted parties, especially customers, in order to prevent further damage
All these activities require you to act with speed and accuracy to curtail the damage and contain the costs. However, if a data breach management plan is in place, you will already have a clear direction for both, breach avoidance and breach response. Here are some of the advantages of such a plan:
Lower the Cost of Data Breaches: As per the Ponemon Institute Study ‘Cost of Data Breach Study 2019’, the worldwide total average cost of a breach is $3.92 million. However, U.S. businesses experience the most expensive breaches, with the total average cost per breach being $8.19 million. The average data breach life cycle (time to identify and contain a breach) is 279 days. Malicious attacks are the leading cause of breaches at 51%, followed by technical glitches at 25%, and human error at 24%. A well-curated breach management plan will help your business lower these costs or avoid them altogether.
Reduce Litigation Risks: Depending on the nature and extent of the breach, your business may be subject to expensive lawsuits, including class-action suits. Usually, litigation arises out of the businesses’ inability to provide timely notification of the breach or invasion of privacy, particularly in the case of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). However, a robust data breach management plan will:
- Lay down the policies and processes for safeguarding information
- Compel you to stay abreast of the current legal landscape
- Define the protocols for post breach response, including breach containment and prompt communication with affected parties and relevant authorities.
Minimize Regulatory Scrutiny: The increasing focus of regulators on cybersecurity risks have led to the emergence of several consumer privacy protection statutes across industries. However, a well-made, and regularly tested and updated breach management plan will allow your business to effectively tackle the evolving cybersecurity landscape. Investing in proactive measures will sit well with the regulators and reflect favorably on your business, in the event of a scrutiny. In fact, your breach management plan could serve as a valuable leverage while negotiating with the state or federal authorities.
Ready to develop and formalize your data breach management plan? Speak to the experts at TITAN Mobile Shredding. We can help you get access to award-winning breach reporting tools through our trusted partner, CSR Privacy Solutions Inc. To know more, call us at (866) 848-2699 or contact us online.
