Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
(Photo : NeONBRAND on Unsplash)

Data breach is something we often hear in the news and read about on socials. Despite a greater emphasis being placed on data security, cybercriminals are frequently finding new ways to evade defences and gain access to valuable corporate or individual data. 

Whether it's through otherworldly social engineering techniques, supply chain attacks or malware, hackers are trying every available means to infiltrate, expose and profit from the sensitive data. In the latest, a great number of LinkedIn users - roughly 92% - have been affected. 

Cybersecurity experts say it's not just the extent of this breach that's troubling; it's the type of data risked that should give LinkedIn users pause. The alleged hacker has even announced the victims of the breach, offering the records of 700 million users for sale. The stolen data reportedly contains email addresses, phone numbers, full names, geolocation records, physical addresses, LinkedIn username, professional and personal experience information, and plenty of other social media accounts usernames. 

More often than not, cybersecurity victims do very little, if anything, after such an event. Some of them even find solace in the fact that millions of others have also experienced the same thing. The thought of it may help reduce the stress, along with the fact that most of them are realising there is virtually nothing they could have done to prevent the breach from happening in the first place. But some of the consequences of a data breach are too irksome to ignore: 

Financial Loss 

Anytime a cybercriminal steals your data, it is to blackmail you. They can do anything with your data, and this can be one of the most immediate and hard-hitting consequences that both individuals and businesses have to deal with. A recent study shows that the cost of a data breach has reached 12% over the past five years to 4,327,904.00 on average globally.

According to PersonalInjuryClaimsUk.org.uk, financial consequences can include compensating affected clients who suffered emotional distress following the breach, setting up incident response efforts, investing in more advanced cybersecurity measures, legal fees, and eye-watering regulatory penalties for not complying with GDPR.

Businesses not complying with the latest GDPR guideline should expect a series of stinging fines. If businesses consider these penalties are nothing to worry about, they should remember the recent fines imposed on British Airways for serious GRPR violations. 

Loss of Trust & Diminished Reputation 

One of the hard-striking consequences of a data breach is the loss of customer trust. 

People trust their sensitive information with businesses like yours, assuming that you rest on the perfect cybersecurity measures to protect their data. A 2017 consumer sentiment survey around privacy risk and cybersecurity reported that 92% of consumers agree that brands and businesses must be proactive about data protection. 

An esteemed and clean reputation is often a business's most valuable asset as a company must constantly work to build and maintain the integrity of its brand. Yet, all it takes is one compromising episode like sneaky malware to tarnish the best of the reputation. Even so, consumer reports have shown that 85% of them won't shop at a business if they doubt their security practises. 

While businesses can and do recover after a security breach, the loss of trust can cause serious damages to their bottom line. One study suggests that privacy and security are top-of-mind priorities for customers. 69% of them would avoid a business that had suffered a data breach. 

What is Targeted in Data Breaches?

Cybercriminals often follow a basic pattern: targeting a business for a breach takes time and diligent planning. Malicious intenders will always research their victims in order to identify weak spots, such as failed or missing updates and employee susceptibility to phishing schemes.

They are patient in learning a business or an individual's weak points, then develop a strategy to get them to download malware. 

More often than not, they target the network directly. 

Once they've reached foreign digital grounds, cybercriminals have the freedom to search for the data they want - an average breach takes around four to five months to detect. 

Malicious criminals often search for vulnerabilities like: 

  • Weak credentials - A great number of data breaches are caused by weak or stolen credentials. Once they've learned your password combination and username, it's a matter of time until they will breach your network. They know people reuse their passwords, so they use advanced attacks to gain access to email, bank accounts and so on. 

  • Stolen credentials - Phishing attacks are some of the most common because cybercriminals can easily get hold of this personal information. 

  • Compromised assets - A number of malware attacks are employed to negate regular authentication procedures that would normally protect a machine /computer/phone. 

  • Third-party access- Regardless of your cybersecurity measures and efforts to keep a data breach away, if a third party has access to your system - so do the hackers. 

Outside the reputational and financial consequences, we must not forget the psychological impact of people whose data is exposed. While an email address may leave some of us shrugging our shoulders, the combination of address, name and birthdate can be enough for a fraudster to do damage. It's the combination of a series of mega data breaches that are leaving consumers massively exposed. 

And a sole data breach may not cause significant damages to businesses, each one chips away at the security of the consumer identity. At the risk of sounding cliche, the time is now for businesses and consumers to take action. And while you can't prevent cybercriminals from infiltrating your business, there are certainly ways to reinforce your identity so that any potential damages are significantly reduced.