Customer Internet Trust At All Time Low – Not Enough Data Protection

December 16, 2016 Posted in Privacy News by No Comments

Incidents of data breach have been spotted throughout the year 2016. While a few were publicized like the Yahoo and Dropbox breach, there are others which went unreported. This problem brings to focus the importance of maintaining or implementing more stringent data protection methods. To assess the extent of the breach here is the statistics- from 2015 there have been over 1673 breaches and 707 million were exposed. Numbers this big demand immediate attention, so here is a five tier approach on how to tackle the issue better and to prevent a breach in the first place:

  • The focus of loss assessment should be the consumer and not the business drop a company faces. The Internet Society report suggests that a change in approach will lead to improved security and defenses against a breach.
  • If a security breach has to be prevented, the only available armor is data protection. All organizations must ensure that data protection protocols are implemented from their end. Best standards of practice must be enforced.
  • Data protection does not limit transparency. In fact, contrarily, transparency reduces the number of attacks on a global scale. When information is shared between organizations, improvement in security is brought about and policy makers are more aware on how to deal with breaches. As a result, the solutions implemented are more effective.
  • Preventive measures are the sturdiest defenses against a data breach. If people are pushed into investing in security, without incentives, it will fall flat. Investing in security must therefore look attractive. Incentives must be increased. This is possible by developing a market specific for trusted, standalone data assessment to brand the security levels of each organization. Security status must become the progress indicator of each organization.
  • Owning up and accepting liability for a breach is the fundamental responsibility of any organization. Those which fail to do so must change their outlook. The handbook of the organization must include rules and remediation of data protection policies.

The report also includes the risk posed by Internet of Things (IoT). The rate of growth of interconnected devices is estimated at 10’s of billions in the next four years. Personal data is at a greater risk of exposure. Reliance on the internet and the number of devices used is ironically making the public more vulnerable to lose personal information. If there is no change, the pace of internet growth will come to an abrupt halt.

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