Alice's Restaurant Served a Data Breach
Alice, who owned a coffee shop in FL
, was informed by her payment card-processing bank of a potential data breach in her point-of-sale system. A forensics investigation found unintentionally stored credit card numbers. However, the payment card processor demanded indemnification for fines assessed by the credit card companies who alleged a data breach. The payment card processor withdrew $10,000 from the restaurant’s bank account and sued Alice's restaurant for the balance of $80,000.
It's a startling fact - simple human error accounts for three out of four incidents.
Data Breach Claim Examples
Ponemon Institute’s 2010 annual study estimates an average post-breach cost of $214 per record. Although this includes $141 in lost business cost, the remaining $73 of actual remediation cost per record can add up quickly.
Example Breach Hotel customer’s credit card stolen from hacked server.
Number of records: 700
Estimated costs at $73 per record = $51,100
Example Breach A physical therapy company dumped sensitive customer information into garbage containers behind its facility. The records included Social Security numbers, credit and debit card account numbers, names, addresses and telephone numbers.
Number of records: 4,000
Estimated costs at $73 per record = $292,000
Example Breach Laptop with employee information stolen out of a parked car.
Number of records: 4,300
Estimated costs at $73 per record = $313,900
Example Breach Missing hospital computer tapes containing Social
Security numbers of patients.
Number of records: 52,000
Estimated costs at $73 per record = $3,796,000
*These are REAL data breach incidents found in online public records
Data breaches occur every day. While hacking incidents are the most recognizable and expensive cause of data loss, they are not the most common. It’s a startling fact - simple human error accounts for three out of four incidents.
- 40% of the data breach cases are from people making mistakes, such as losing laptops and flash drives.
- 36% are system glitches, such as software updates, which inadvertently expose sensitive private files.
- 24% are malicious and criminal attacks.
No matter the sophistication of the security system, there is little that can be done to eliminate the risk of human error. A common, accidental breach is a real business risk worth considering today.
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