There’s a great deal of talk when it comes to breach. Whether breach occurs due to human error or network vulnerabilities it is costly for organizations. Businesses get hurt financially and lose trust. So, how can you reduce breach costs?
The first thing executives want to keep in mind when addressing breach costs are the factors that affect it. Knowing what these are is how you will be able to plan and address the situation. Here are the seven influencers of data breach cost pointed out by the Ponemon Institute 2013 Cost of Data Breach Study.
- Whether or not a business has an incident management plan at the time of breach
- A strong security posture when breach occurs
- Ensuring you have a security professional overseeing data protection for your company
- Third party breach
- The timing of breach notification to the victims
- If breach occurs due to lost or stolen devices
- Having a trusted consultant to assist in data breach response and remediation
The top three ways you can reduce the costs of breach include: incident management planning and response, having a strong security posture and consulting support. Let’s dive into some of the details to find out how and why they influence your businesses data breach costs to such an extent.
Incident Management Planning and Response
When a challenge arises, if there is a plan and the sooner it is addressed, the less damage it can cause, correct? Yes, the same goes for breach; and the key is in incident management.
Problem: Your network has been hacked; you need to gather information to track how it happened, why it happened, and how to immediately cut access to your data and network from the attacker.
Solution: Effective time line investigation and gathering the data that shows where your vulnerability lies is how you fix and prevent a second occurrence. Your weakness is fixed, you have minimized damage; you have saved on breach cost.
A Strong Security Posture and Consulting Support
If I’m looking to gain access to information that is not mine the first thing I will do is study and look into the security systems I will have to get around to get what I want. Every day something changes in website coding, apps, online banking platforms, security software, etc. Every day someone is looking into those changes and seeing how they can get around them.
Problem: A weak security system allows easy access to anyone (lost or stolen device scenario). A good security system presents some challenge to malicious professionals (security posture for the expert infiltrator who at times attempts getting inside your network and cracking the code for the pure challenge of being able to get in). This implies that no matter what security software you’ve bought and update; no matter what security system you have in place; your work does not stop there.
Solution: Having a strong security posture for the eager hacker and security measures for lost or stolen devices, plus the security expert who is always keeping up to date on trends, news, incidents, best practices and everything that entails information and network security. The consultant’s business is security; it is what they eat and breathe. This puts them on par with what the malicious outsider who is doing the exact same thing, but with the intent of entering your network and taking your data. The business executive is busy managing what’s inside the structure, teams, and a list of day to day tasks that leaves little room to stay up to date on trends or do the research necessary to compete with the “busy” hacker.
Do you sense the urgency of the matter? Unfortunately, until the need arises, so until breach happens; the urgency of security doesn’t seem to always be a priority for executives and business owners. It should be!
Taking the necessary steps to stay proactive with your information security is the only way you will reduce your breach costs. There is really no other way to put it. Hopefully, the information provided has given you the bigger picture and made room for thought on your information security posture.
Are you ready to reduce your data breach costs?
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