In today’s era, where cybercrimes and cloud networking are rising, data breach monitoring is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

Data breaches result from cyberattacks where organizations and individuals lose confidential data. Not a week goes by without news of businesses losing their sensitive data to malicious cyber activities. Cybercrime is expected to cost the world 10.5 trillion USD per year by 2025.

The usual target for cybercriminals is small to medium enterprises because they don’t have the same robust security measures as large corporations. With over 43% of malicious attacks aimed at SMEs, only 14% of them are capable of tackling it.

Here are some of the worst incidents of data breaches in the history:

• In 2016, Yahoo announced that 3+ billion user accounts were stolen from the platform, including users’ personal data.
• 145 million users at eBay lost their personal data and encrypted passwords to intruders who accessed their accounts using corporate employees’ passwords.
• Marriot International faced a data breach affecting 500 million of their guests. The intruders stole the personal data and credit card data of their customers.
• Equifax, a famous credit bureau, faced a data breach in 2017, losing their customers’ confidential data, including social security numbers, addresses, and driver’s license numbers.

Aftermath of Data Breaches

Losing Market Value

When companies face data breaches, they lose sensitive data like financial records, stakeholder details, suppliers’ contracts, and personal information. The intruders either sell their data to the competitors or post it publicly. As a result, the company loses its market value. Using the same example as above, when Yahoo announced its data breach incident, its share price tanked by 5% on the same day.

Losing People’s Trust

if people lose their data and credit card information while using your services, they’re less likely to return. The word spreads faster, businesses lose more customers, and no one wants to be associated with them, causing financial distress.

Financial Fraud

Businesses don’t only lose their reputation and customers over data breaches. Hackers may use their corporate identity to commit cybercrimes and financial fraud, bankrupting the business.

Legal Penalties

When a business loses its clients’ sensitive details, it costs them millions in lawsuits and leads to legal penalties. If the company fails to inform the relevant data owners about the breach, they may have to pay civil penalties. Yahoo announced the data breach three years after the incident, which resulted in an investigation by the US Congress and multiple lawsuits.

Why Data Breaches Occur & How to Prevent It

Most companies don’t understand the importance of data breach monitoring, while others don’t put enough effort into installing a robust data security system and face the consequences.

Data breach monitoring is crucial for all businesses, no matter what size, because it can make or break their reputation and market value. Installing a data security system isn’t enough because modern hackers are getting smarter. You can never be 100% safe, but hiring a team of data security experts who monitor the web 24/7 for illegal copies of your data is the right move. It enables you to take corrective action before any significant loss happens.  

At Onsist, we offer data breach monitoring along with dark web monitoring and threat intelligence solutions. Our trained experts offer round-the-clock protection to your business and intellectual property. Request a free analysis to get started.