In spite of daily headlines concerning data breaches, the truth is, there continues to be a feeling of apathy regarding the issues and problems around cyber security. Customers believe that their credit cards will subsequently be replaced by their respective banks and they may not be held responsible for financial losses, while companies that have suffered a data breach are likely to take refuge in the thought that their stock prices will eventually bounce back, which is why most people do not take government regulations concerning security seriously.
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At the moment, since there is so much noise around data breaches every day, customers, organizations, and governmental institutions are unable to distinguish between ‘unfeignedly earth-shattering’ mega data breaches and plainly ‘annoying’ data breaches. News headlines and articles concerning data breaches are sometimes unclear on these differentiations; nevertheless, it is vital to understand that every data breach leaks to unique consequences. A data breach concerning 50 million usernames may not be as critical as a data breach of 1 million accounts with Social Security numbers and other private or personal data that can be exploited for financial gain.
Experts and data protection analysts opine that the best way to protect any information is to kill it. This means that ensuring important and significant information is secured with encryption so that it becomes useless to hackers.
Organizations must look into an option of creating a secure breach environment to safeguard critical information. In this progressively growing digital world, where larger and larger quantities of information are being disseminated, handled and stored through various and multiple unsecured devices and in the cloud, it is extremely important to understand that eventually, data breaches are likely to take place if data security methods are not implemented. In addition to relying on breach prevention strategies, it is also important for organizations to look into strategies and processes that can help them to secure the data breach once cyber criminals have managed to enter and break into their network defenses.
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Organizations must concentrate on realizing and understanding about what constitutes critical information and where it is stored, as well as employing the best and robust means to protect it.
Even though data encryption is widely employed and well-known across the world, less than 5% of all data breaches that have taken place in 2016 involved information that were connected in some manner or completely, according to reports from the Breach Level Index. This survey which has consistently been taking place over the past five years has revealed more or less the same percentile, which shows that the amount of apathy, displayed by organizations despite the threat of data breaches, is unacceptable.
While consumers may be able to replace their credit cards and cover fraudulent charges, the damage that takes place due to stolen identities and classified private data is much more damaging and longer lasting.
Companies and consumers can no longer afford to be waiting for the tipping point that can move them to adopt a document security strategy. Now is the time for all to defend their data securely and prevent data breaches in the best possible way available to them.
