Data breaches in the hundreds of millions of records have made the news over the last two years. The latest report from Bitglass covers the results and repercussions of the breaches.
No organization wants to be in the news for a data breach. But then there’s the “monster” data breach – the likes of Marriott, LinkedIn, and Equifax – of which no company ever wants to be the victim of. Despite the negative press, what does the aftermath of breaches like these look like. In Bitglass’ Kings of the Monster Breaches report, the 12 largest data breaches are put in the spotlight, providing detail on the extent of the damage.
According to the report, the average monster breach resulted in:
- 257 million individuals affected
- $347 million in remediation costs
- A 7.5% decrease in stock price (which recovers on an average of 46 days)
- An adjusted market cap loss of $762 million
Data breaches in organizations including Facebook, Sonic Drive-In, and Yahoo Data were the result of cyberattacks focused on compromising some part of the internal network. In Yahoo’s case, is was determined to be a state-sponsored phishing attack.
Organizations looking to avoid any kind of data breach need to look to protect the most-common points of entry into the network. Users regularly navigate outside the safety net of the organization surfing the web, and allow external content inside the network when opening emails – all putting the organization at risk.
Instructing users on the need for secure work practices, as well as how to properly interact with email and the web can be accomplished using Security Awareness Training. By putting users regularly through this training, organizations reduce the risk of successful attack by strengthening their security stance at its’ weakest point – the user.
