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Despite advancements in technology and increased awareness of cybersecurity threats, companies continue to fall victim to breach attacks. Just this year has seen a worrying growing number of high-profile data breaches that risked the privacy of millions.
According to Techxplore, a data breach is an unauthorized access or disclosure of sensitive, confidential, or private information (customer identities, payment methods, account details, purchase histories, and more). These breaches can happen when cyber criminals exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems, networks, applications, or physical security in order to gain unauthorized access to protected data.
Furthermore, not only is the number of breaches growing but the average cost and severity of the breaches are also rising substantially. IBM reports that the average cost of a data breach is $4.45 million, which is an increase of 15% over three years.
So what’s driving these increases? The first factor is simply the increased demand for targeted advertising and the growing importance of data-driven decision-making – companies want to know more about you, and the more comprehensive and accurate the data, the more valuable it becomes.
Increasingly stringent privacy regulations like the European GDPR laws are driving organizations to improve their data management practices and security measures, which has made it harder for cyber criminals to acquire user data in bulk.
At the same time, the markets for illegal customer data are growing in popularity as anonymizing networks and tools become both advanced and easy to use, allowing cybercriminals to find buyers for stolen data much more easily.
Nevertheless, large firms and companies are investing more and more to protect and store data, increasing the complexity of data and cybersecurity practices and so increasing the skill needed for cybercriminals to successfully attack.
In conclusion, the best way to think about the problem of data breaches is not to think about how your data can be breached, but rather think about how companies and organizations get your data in the first place – the best way to protect yourself online is to guard your data.
This information was provided by Techxplore.
