When Equifax and Facebook were faced with consumer data breaches, it cost them millions of dollars, excluding additional expenses, according to recent research from IBM Security and Ponemon Institute. Globally, an average data breach discloses over 25,000 detailed customer records and carries a cost of over $3 million, according to research released by IBM – Cost of a Data Breach. US-based companies that have suffered data breaches have found it the more expensive than anywhere else in the world, with an average cost of over $8 million per cyber-attack.The Cambridge Analytica data scandal that is considered a significant breach of exposure of more than 50 million records worldwide held a whopping cost of over $388 million in 2019.
Cost Businesses that Experienced Data Breaches
Besides, the financial repercussions of a data breach can go on for years in the form of regulatory actions, numerous lawsuits, loss of brand identity and customers. However, if the response to a data breach crisis is quick and well implemented, it can drastically cut costs and prevent a considerable fallout. The Incident Response and Intelligence Service from IBM reveals that the average response time to recognize and limit a data breach is typically around 279 days. But, some companies that quickened their response window to under 200 days saved more than $1 million on an average.
Today, data breaches have become a frequent phenomenon in the corporate arena. Leading companies such as Equifax and Facebook that experienced significant cyber-attacks that further resulted in a continuous and unprecedented regulatory investigation. For instance, Equifax will have to pay approximately $700 million to reimburse their customers, where 1147 million people\’s personal records were exposed. On the other hand, Facebook has agreed to pay a $5 billion fine to the Federal Trade Commission to settle the investigation into its data privacy practices due to the Cambridge Analytica embarrassment. Here, over 87 million users\’ data were compromised.
In addition to a dedicated cyber security staff with an emergency response strategy in place, organizations are now turning to automated tools such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to assist their attempts in safeguarding their data against hacking and cybercrime.
Regarded as one of the most salient, yet underestimated data protection software, Digital Rights Management [DRM], is a highly useful tool in safeguarding PDFs document and files. Today data sharing across the world is at an all-time high. Content and information are being distributed and sourced at a rapid speed, but the demand for content is often threatened by a shortage of safety in protecting it. Hence, content creators and data distributors are finding themselves in a tight spot when it comes to safeguarding their data. This is where DRM comes in to address the issue. Based on algorithms and procedures, digital rights management was created to enforce copyright compliance when consuming content. In the absence of DRM, data can be easily stolen, replicated and freely distributed.
In an organization, DRM is often referred to as enterprise DRM or information rights management. It addresses data security requirements in a different setting – an organization. Here, DRM safeguards organizational data from unauthorized access, sharing and distribution by enforcing specific rules for the data stored in documents and PDFs.
Although one of the chief benefits of electronic documents is its ease in movement, companies must control data in PDF files and documents to ensure that the content or the file does not fall into unintended hands or that the data is misused. Organizations can combat data leakage by further adding controls to monitor how the content in a document is used. For instance, a document can be permitted to be viewed but may not have the rights to be edited or duplicated.
And while time is money, these days, data too carries equal significance. If classified or intellectual property is stolen, lost or illegally duplicated, it can have grave consequences for any business or individual. Stolen data could be just as cataclysmic as the collapse of all of a company\’s investments and capital base. This is why having a robust data rights management solution in place is imperative for today\’s organizations, regardless of its size.Although stringent policies for data security such as BYOD, network rights access and data loss prevention work for an enterprise, it could leave the workforce low in morale. On the other hand, sharing passwords, easy workarounds, depending on unsecured computing services, could create massive holes in your company\’s security systems. Hence, it is crucial to strike a balance and educate the workforce on their rights and responsibilities to data security.