2019 was the worst year for data breaches; what needs to change

Employee monitoring and endpoint data loss prevention software is a starting point to prevent accidental and malicious data exposure, plus equipping employees to spot and respond to threats.

2019 was a rough year for data security. By the half-way point, the year was already on pace to be the worst year ever, as the number of data breaches was up 54 percent year-over-year, and the number of exposed records surged by 52 percent.

At the same time, companies incurred increasingly steep costs for their failure to protect customer data. According to The Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach is approaching US$ 4 million (£3 million), and those consequences are even more drastic for SMBs, 60 percent of which will go out of business within six months of a data breach.

Moreover, after years of escalating data breaches, consumers are fed up with companies that can’t protect their data. In a recent survey by Ping Identity, 81 percent of consumers would consider disengaging with a brand entirely after a data breach. Similarly, businesses can lose half of their customers after a data breach, a severe hindrance to their recovery and long-term viability. What’s more, consumers are increasingly backed by regulatory bodies who are levying fines on companies that fail to adequately protect customer data. From Europe’s GDPR to California’s CCPA, global privacy regulation is increasing the impetus to protect customer data at any cost.

Unfortunately, these trends are unlikely to abate anytime soon. In fact, a survey of 800 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) found that more than 90 percent believe that “the cyber-threat landscape will stay the same or worsen in 2020.”

2020 brings new opportunities to reflect on current practices and to implement a plan to improve in this regard in the year ahead. There is a clear solution to one of the most critical components of protecting company and consumer data.