Security and data breaches can be highly disruptive and embarrassing – for both a business and its customers. It seems that every week there is a new headline of a company that has experienced a security breach and putting them at risk.
If you run or operate a business, you’ll want to do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening and in order to do so, first, you will need to know what exactly causes security breaches and how they can be prevented.
What Is A Data Breach?
We hear the phrases ‘data breach’ and ‘security breach’ all the time, but what exactly do they mean? Simply put, it is a security incident where private and sensitive information is accessed without authorisation.
This information can then be used in a variety of different ways to benefit the hackers including viewing the information, copying and transmitting it, or selling it on to make money.
And with technology advancing at such a fast rate, more and more of our information has been moving to the digital world. As a result of this, cyber-attacks and security breaches have unfortunately become increasingly common and costly.
What Causes A Data Breach?
As technology continues to advance, so do cybercriminals. This is because cybercrime is seen as a very profitable industry for attackers and therefore continues to grow and progress rapidly over time.
Data breaches can occur for a number of reasons, including accidentally, but there are a few main ways in which targeted attacks can occur.
Malware
The definition of malware is any type of software that has been intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, computer network, server or person. This software can leak private information, gain access to unauthorised information or systems, and deny access to important information which can unknowingly interfere with the security and privacy of a computer system.
The use of malware is on the rise, too. That’s why you should be very careful when visiting suspicious websites that don’t seem genuine, or opening emails where you are unsure of their origin or what is in them. Both of these are very common ways of entering malware onto your device.
Malicious Insiders
If you run a company, no matter how big or small, your employees will have access to sensitive information. And as dark as this may sound, there is always a chance that someone will try to misuse it. The potential financial gain from selling data on the dark web is too great for many, which means you should keep an eye on anyone who you may think could be a malicious insider.
There is also a risk of a security breach and sensitive information being stolen by a previous employee who maybe left the organisation under poor terms and still has access to your systems.
Weak Passwords
Weak passwords are one of the main causes of security breaches. Many people and businesses are continuing to put their cyber security at risk by failing to protect their sensitive information online due to an easily guessable password.
Having a simple password may be easier to remember, especially if you have many accounts on a range of applications and software, but it is still very important to update them to something stronger.
Loss of a device
Data breaches don’t all have to e caused online, they can happen in the real physical world too. This form of a data breach can be split into two categories: unintentional and malicious.
It is very common for people to lose their laptops, storage devices, papers or phones whilst going about their everyday life such as in trains, buses, and cafes. This, therefore, leads to the physical theft of data and personal information.
On the other hand, some physical incidents involve the theft of paperwork or devices in a well-planned and malicious way. Employees are increasingly encouraged to work from home or on the go, but if they don’t keep an eye on their assets, an opportunist thief could easily have his eyes on them.
One of the other leading methods to breach data is card skimming. This is where a device is inserted into card readers and ATMs to make a copy of payment card information and other personal details.
Human errors
Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes accidental actions like sending an email to the wrong recipient, uploading data to public cloud storage, attaching the wrong document or handing a physical file to someone who shouldn’t have access to the information can also cause a data breach. You can’t control or predict human errors, but unintentional errors can cost a fortune to fix and can lead to the leak of a lot of private information.
How To Calculate The Cost Of A Data Breach
It’s very clear that one of the main impacts of a security breach – aside from the loss of sensitive information – is the financial impact. To determine the cost of a security breach there are several factors that you need to keep in mind.
Direct Costs
These are the expenses that come directly after a detected breach. They include the costs of forensic and investigation activities, fines, and compensation to any employees or affected people.
Indirect Costs
These consist of long-term effects that come after the breach has been detected and dealt with. They include communication with data subjects, regulators, legal experts, and regulatory consultants to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
Indirect costs also include having to deal with, and try to recover, brand damage after the breach. This could include offers and discounts to restore a bit of that tarnished goodwill to customers and affected personnel.
Each and every data breach happens in a different way and does a different amount of damage. This means that they each need to be dealt with in a different manner, making it difficult to hypothetically calculate the cost of a security breach.
With that being said there are some key factors and costs that can be integrated into most security breaches including:
- The number of affected people – each person affected by the breach needs to be compensated.
- The previous history of security incidents – laws, standards, and regulations have stricter rules for businesses that suffer from more than one breach during a specified time period.
- Duration of the breach – breaches that are detected and fixed in less than 6 months cost, on average, a third less than breaches that last over 6 months.
- The complexity of the cybersecurity system – The more tools, systems, and devices an organisation has the more that it will cost to remedy the breach.
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