Can You Afford a Data Breach?

No matter how big or small your business, the cost of a data breach is high. Every business is at risk of a data breach, and criminals are consistently figuring out new ways to steal sensitive information. Privacy breaches are extremely costly and when considering the long-term impact, companies cannot afford a data breach.

The Cost of a Data Breach

Data breaches are expensive for your business. A data breach is costly to investigate and respond to and will also cost your business in time lost and in reputation. The bad publicity and financial impact resulting from a data breach can harm your business for years after the incident. Although a data breach may cost a large company more in actual dollars lost, they may be able to absorb this much easier than a small business would. The average cost of each lost or stolen record is an average of $146. If those records include customer or employee personally identifiable information, the cost can be even higher. The longer it takes to detect and identify the breach, the higher the cost.

What Makes a Data Breach So Costly?

A data breach will impact many facets of your organization. You will likely lose business, either due to a customer directly leaving in response to the data breach or because customers will be affected by the system downtime. Resources must be diverted to cover the detection and remediation of the breach. This can include auditing services, crisis management teams, IT costs, and investigative or forensic costs. Your organization may need to pay for credit monitoring for your customers. You will undoubtedly have legal fees, and you may even need to pay fines. After all this, your reputation will still have taken a major hit, which means that obtaining the new business to cover these costs will be much more challenging. A data breach has lasting impacts for your company.

How Your Company Can Reduce the Risk of a Data Breach

Given the high cost and lasting impact of a data breach, investing in procedures to reduce the risk of a breach is a smart choice for businesses of all sizes. Most businesses are not prepared for a data breach. AccuShred offers a powerful program called CSR Readiness Pro which includes a proactive risk assessment and a reactive Breach Reporting Service.

Together, these programs help to reduce the risk that your business will be negatively affected by a data breach. The risk assessment will help to identify and assess any potential weak points. Once the weak points are identified, recommendations are made to improve your data protection. If a breach does occur, the breach reporting service has the expertise and staff to handle all of the state and federal reporting requirements necessary to avoid further penalties. This can be extremely time consuming and expensive.

Being proactive is the best way to avoid the high cost of a data breach. Your business needs to have a plan in place for security and response to a potential breach, employee training in cyber security best practices, and an investment in a cost effective service that will protect your business both before and after a data breach. Data thieves are always working hard to steal confidential data. Being prepared can ensure that your company won’t be the victim of a costly data breach. For more information about how we can help you keep your company data better protected, contact AccuShred today.