Poor Privacy Practices Sharply Boost Likelihood of a Data Breach, Study Shows

Companies that don’t change their perception about data protection are increasing their odds of suffering a data breach by a whopping 80% and, in the event of a breach, will face fines seven times larger than companies with the best scores, according to a new report.

In the cybersecurity realm, privacy issues are akin to a speeding ticket, according to Osano CEO, Arlo Gilbert.

“Companies that don’t change their perception are facing higher odds of experiencing a data breach and losing the trust they’ve built with their customers,” he said.

His firm recently carried out a study to find the relationship between a company’s privacy practices and their likelihood of experiencing a data breach.

According to the analysis, companies with inadequate data privacy practices are 80% more likely to suffer a breach than those with robust privacy practices. And, if a breach occurs, laggards will face fines under data protection laws seven times larger than companies with the best scores.

Key findings include:

• Approximately 2.77% of companies reported a data breach over the past 15 years.
• Companies with the least rigorous privacy practices are nearly twice as likely to suffer a data breach than companies with excellent data stewardship.
• The average company shares its data with 730 vendors and third-party vendors. Third parties were responsible for two out of every three data breaches.
• Companies with the least rigorous privacy practices lose seven times the number of data records when they are breached.
• Hacker attacks were responsible for the highest number of data breaches and hacker-caused data breaches inflicted the most severe losses.
• Companies in financial industries were far more likely to experience data breaches caused by inside jobs.
• Nearly 30% of government and educational organizations with “.gov” and “.edu” top-level domains experienced a data breach.

The correlations between the likelihood of experiencing data breaches and poor privacy practices stem from willful ignorance, oversight of privacy best practices that increase risk exposure, and company culture around responsible data stewardship, the research showed.