Forty-one percent of British customers will never return to a brand after it’s been suffered a hack, according to new research.
The findings have been published in the Ponemon Institute’s 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study, which shows that UK consumers are harder on businesses that suffer data breaches, compared to US customers.
Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN said businesses need to assess their cybersecurity risks, make relevant company-wide changes, and improve the overall approach to security.
“Organisations need to enforce reliable security measures and inform their customers about how their data is collected, processed, and stored,” he said.
“Every company should start by establishing its security policy and ensuring compliance with any applicable regulations. If a company also chooses the right security tools and educates its employees, it can prevent many potential breaches.”
Steps to protect your business from data breaches
Define your security policy: You should start by developing the guidelines or best practices for all employees to follow. IT decision makers should evaluate and update corporate policies more frequently. Such policies may include a rule to lock computers before going away from desks and to never share accounts with coworkers.
Follow regulations: It is vital that companies have rules in place to protect their data inside and outside the organisational network. Organisations process hundreds of emails and other documents daily. Some of these may fall out of the scope of specific laws yet still represent corporate liability and reputation risks. To keep HR, legal, and other documents protected and secure, businesses should work internally and with their cloud vendors to know exactly where and how the data is stored and processed. When enterprises follow the regulations for data protection, they have a better chance to prevent data leaks and avoid fines or reputation issues.
Educate your employees: It is important to cultivate the secure mindset of every team member. Keep your employees informed about the dangers of clicking on links or attachments from unknown sources. Also, make sure to educate them about phishing attacks or social engineering. You can create a cybersecurity test to understand how much your employees know about security online. You can also put up memos around the office with messages such as “do not share your password with anyone” or “log out of the system when you finish”.
Invest in the right technology: Use firewalls, a reputable VPN service, network monitoring tools, and secure backups. Consider a solution for data protection. This might include a DLP or CASB tool to protect your systems against cyber attacks through malware prevention. Enterprise rights management (ERM) software can protect your content from accidental or malicious sharing and inappropriate use.
Keep your passwords and devices secure: Can your employees view sensitive information on their phones securely? If not, your data may be at risk. According to research by Cisco, approximately 63 percent of employees admitted to using a work computer for personal use every day, and 83 percent admitted to doing so occasionally. However, the transference of files between work computers and personal computers opens companies to cyber threats and corporate liability. Employees will continue to use their own gadgets for work, so companies should help them by providing secure ways to perform work activities on such devices. You can do it by installing a VPN.