Three Steps to Avoid the $3.86 Million Data Breach Cost
The 2020 Cost of Data Breach Report shows that the average global cost of a data breach is $3.86M, with the US seeing the highest average cost at $8.63M. Unfortunately, we see too many headlines about data breaches from companies we once trusted. Trust is of paramount importance in all relationships—professional and personal.
A well-planned data breach strategy can help ensure that your company does not erode trust or lose customers as a result of a data breach. At Slalom, we have a three-step process to help you company develop that sound data breach strategy.
1. Develop a privacy first mindset
Most breaches occur from insiders and third parties at a company, but and this risk can be lessened through a privacy first mindset. This mindset should be part of the ethos of your company. When the company sets the tone that it is fully committed to data privacy, this message will percolate through the organization. When employees join your company, they must be educated on the significance of privacy.
This mindset will take work to establish. Employees need comprehensive training and an understanding on the importance and implications of data privacy breaches. Your company should structure a data privacy training program. A training program will teach employees to recognize different privacy vulnerabilities and provide tools and guidance to empower employees to properly report this information to the pre-defined list of privacy experts to help mitigate any potential breaches.
2. Evaluate and implement the right technology
It’s about finding the right technology that our clients can and will use—not technology that sits on the shelf either idle or misused. At Slalom we work to help our clients distill their unique privacy concerns as they relate to data breaches. With this information Slalom can bring forward various technology partner recommendations. We work to evaluate each of these partners using a custom scorecard to align with the needs of our clients. At the end of this evaluation, we help our clients implement the right technology partner for them.
3. Develop the right policies and procedures
In working with our clients, we have found many policies and procedures to be ineffective. One of the main reasons for this is because legal and privacy teams compose policies and procedures that are unduly complex and leave the end user confused and overwhelmed.
The privacy team is the key leader in the process and development, but our approach looks to enlist input from various departments. Then, we pressure-test the guidance to make sure it’s relatable, easily understood, and simple enough to follow. With this collaborative approach, our clients have found that when they are faced with a data breach, their teams are better equipped to act expeditiously and diminish risks of data breaches.
Another important aspect of the development of the policies and procedures is to ensure these documents are living and breathing documents—meaning that they adapt to changes in the company and the law.
By following these guidelines, Slalom clients have found success in implementing successful data breach policies and procedures, and avoiding costly implications. We can help your company come up with an action plan for data breaches. Let’s talk.
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