At KubeNet one of our top priorities is to stay at the leading edge of threat detection and prevention. We do that by finding, training and keeping the best IT people in the business, and also by being a leading part of the communications business through knowledge sharing and support.
With security breaches costing business £34 billion last year, there are no prizes for guessing that cybersecurity has been the hottest of hot topics in recent weeks – and that our we have seen a surge in interest in our own KubeNet Managed Firewall Service (KMFS).
Companies – particularly SMEs can now appreciate the impact of a cyber attack on their business. But what about the people who drive your business – your customers? What do YOUR customers think about security and what do they expect of you in terms of their protection?
Experian can tell you. In a new report, they discovered that customers place higher expectations on business to protect their data than they do on their own activity.
There are some eyecatching results in the research:
- Over half of people believe that they have been the target of fraudulent activity online
- 51% believe it is the sole responsibility of businesses to protect their data. Just 9% think it’s down to them.
- 13% have been told by a company that they hold an account with that their personal details have been compromised
Businesses fare little better:
- Only 78% of businesses have plans in place to deal with data breaches
- A whopping 84% of businesses don’t have forensic analysis – even though it will be law from May next year
- Customers expect support from the business after a data breach. 48% of companies surveyed did not have a crisis or customer communication plan in place.
- 65% of customers say they would contact the company following a data breach. But 71% of companies admit that they may not have the call capacity to deal with it.
Experian’s Jim Steven sums it up “For businesses, it’s clear organisations are waking up to the risks posed by data breaches and the effect it has on their customers. Most companies are now making plans for the worst-case scenarios, but it seems many are neglecting fundamental parts of a data breach response and keeping people informed and reassured”.
So reputational and financial damage are the main consequences of a data breach. Companies need to understand where their data is kept and take steps to secure it. In addition, a managed service may well be the best, and in some cases only, way to do that effectively.
