Data Breaches by the Numbers

Every year, there seems to be a buzz word in the IT community based on new technologies or recent events.  Typically, although it is the buzz word of the year, the trend for addressing that trend lags behind a few years due to planning, designing, testing and implementation.

Recently, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Cyber Security seem to be the buzz words that are on everyone's minds.  AI is the buzz word because of the new technologies coming out.. Because don't we all want a robot to cook us dinner?

However, cyber security and/or security in general is also popular and is largely due to the recent events with so many businesses being hacked and having data stolen.   

According to Wikipedia, there have been 292 data breaches since 2004 where over 30,000 records were breached.  Just to name a few in 2019:

• Capital One - 106 million records stolen

• Facebook - 540 million records stolen

• First American Corporation - 885 million records stolen

• Quest Diagnostics - 12 million records stolen

"Okay…enough with the Doom and Gloom, we get it!" you might be saying.  Which is true, we all know security is important and it is a big deal.  However, if you are a small or medium size business, these are the scarier stats (according to My Digital Shield:

• 81% of all data breaches happen to SMBs

• $300k - Average loss of single data breach

• 46% of consumers avoid SMBs that were breached

• 60% of SMBs with a data breach will close in the next 6 months

 "I guess it's just a matter of time for my business gets breached then right?"

NO - The good news is that 97%+ of the breaches that are occurring could have been avoided with the technology available today!  THERE IS HOPE!

 If you are concerned that your cyber security in your business is not up to par and you would like to start evaluating what is next for you, set up a time and let's talk today about prioritizing the many solutions out there.