As more data breaches with large companies, health care providers and financial institutions occur almost daily, the question of how much it costs when one of these incidents takes place comes to mind. Using 2013 numbers, the Ponemon Institute showed that the average financial cost of a data breach is $690,204 per incident with the highest cost ever recorded to date coming in at $1.7 million.
Costs are not only financial
While the financial costs are high, other areas that don't have a dollar sign attached but are major players in a company's success also are damaged. Reputation takes a hit with consumers whose confidence is shaken and with investors and suppliers who wonder if the company is going to remain solvent.. Businesses often ignore the internal cost working to fix the damage and not performing their assigned jobs. A decline in productivity often results and that means loss of revenue as the damage begins to spin out of control.
One breach could lead to others
If a company sustains an initial breach, said an article at No Jitter, officials should be on alert for others to follow in quick succession. Containment costs escalate if the breach expands or others take place which could lead to more costly resource expenditures. Recovery and post recovery operations also accrue costs and hardware and software may need replacing. The heavy use of multiple staffers to get the business back up-and-running is something company managers need to factor into their annual budgets. Companies should bank on experiencing a breach at some point during operations. How, then, can management prevent, or at least preemptively minimize any chance of incursions?
New biometric technology can help
Many companies are opting to delve into the world of biometric technology to thwart would-be miscreants. Fingerprint scanning is one way companies can prevent damage to the physical facility by controlling access. By using a template of an employee's fingerprint, security officials will be able to have complete biometric access control to data centers and server cabinet rooms. This means only authorized personnel can enter the facility and keeps the potential of internal damage to a minimum.
The Ponemon survey found that a majority of breaches are caused by insiders, many by accident, and it seems incumbent upon business leaders to explore a state-of-the-art biometric security system to protect vital and proprietary data before it gets into the wrong hands.
One of the oft-forgotten areas that No Jitter explored was third party expenses incurred by a breach or series thereof. Having to retain outside talent to correct insider mistakes is a huge cost, said their story. Regulatory reports and disaster mitigation may be required and that would entail lawyers, accountants, IT professionals and others, impacting the annual bottom line. If company managers are concerned with keeping expenditures low then deploying a solid and almost foolproof security protocol before a breach takes place makes sense.
Downtime means loss of revenue and a possible drop in customer confidence. If customers don't return the churn rate escalates and the entire reputation of the company takes a hit. This could necessitate a complete re-branding of the operation and increased marketing and advertising all factor in to the gigantic losses a breach can create.
Biometric security, always changing to keep abreast of new threats, can keep a company safe, solvent and successful in knowing that they are protected as best can be with the technology developed by experts in securing data centers and server cabinets.
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