US Cybersecurity: 64% Americans Don’t Have Data Breach Response Plan
Along with the rapid technological advancements, the emphasis on cybersecurity has evolved at break-neck speed.
Without further ado, cybersecurity has become a vital part of corporate culture in the modern world.
While the businesses have never ceased to enhance their security policies and regulations, cybercrime, on the other hand, has become more sophisticated over the years.
Even after increasing their security spending, the companies are still at risk of being hacked.
In a September 2018 survey of U.S. adults, 32.7% of respondents stated that they had experienced a hack of their social media or e-mail account.
“14% of respondents stated that their online accounts had been hacked more than once.”
Even though the Americans are keenly aware that the risk of becoming a cybercrime victim is increasing rapidly, most consumers do little to nothing to protect themselves.
[ALSO READ: 25 Must-Know Data Breach Statistics for 2020]
Here we bring you some findings of America’s cybercrime literacy rate:
It was found that most Americans don’t know the steps to take when they are affected by a data breach. And, most have never checked if their data is lost during data breaches.
1) 64% Americans Never Check If They are at Cyber Risk
A recent survey of 1,000 American adults revealed that 64% have never checked to see if they were affected by any of the major data breaches.
This is very daunting, especially when billions of Americans are being impacted by cyberattacks every year.
According to the 2018 Data Breach Report by the Identity Theft Resource Centre, hackers stole nearly 447 million consumer records containing sensitive personal information in 2018, up by 126% from 2017.
Around 143 million Americans were affected by the Equifax breach in 2017 alone.
Even though every consumer is not affected by the data breach, it’s imperative to check regularly if the information is at risk and keep tabs on sensitive data.
However, most Americans have little knowledge about the severity of breaches and steps to take in case of a data breach.
2) 56% Americans Don’t Know Response Steps in Case of Data Breach
The aforementioned survey of 1,000 US adults found that ‘56% of Americans don’t know how to respond in the event of a data breach’. That means only 44% of Americans have a data breach response plan.
Don’t worry! We bring some steps for consumers and companies to take post-breach.
[ALSO READ: 5 Cybersecurity Trends to Watch for 2020]
Data Breach Self-defense Tips
Use the following tips and best practices to respond if your data is compromised.
Prevention
- Use a password manager and create complex passwords
- Don’t use the same password for different sites
- Adopt additional security measures, like MFA
- Set up customized alerts for financial accounts
Remediation
- Verify your involvement and which data was compromised
- Change your password and any similar credentials
- Alert your bank and block your credit and debit cards
- Monitor for signs of identity theft if your PII was exposed
In the event of a data breach, the breached companies and organizations provide information on their websites about the breach and, protections and compensation they provide.
However, do not enter personal information on sites other than the official website to check your data breach status.
[ALSO READ: Cybersecurity for SMBs: Challenges and Tips]
Steps for Organizations to Reduce Breach Damage
Cybersecurity concerns have become a day-to-day struggle for businesses in the modern world. To give you a better idea of the current state of cybersecurity, we’ve compiled some of the cybersecurity facts and stats.
Cybersecurity Facts:
- 64% of companies have experienced web-based attacks
- 62% of companies experienced phishing and social engineering attacks
- 59% of companies experienced malicious code and botnets
- 51% experienced denial of service attacks
- 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses
So, the organizations should follow security protocols and adopt effective regulations to prevent cyberattacks and lessen the damage if one occurs.
[ALSO READ: Information Security Consulting Services in the USA]
How Companies Can Lessen Damage of a Data Breach?
Treat Data with Care:
- Discover, organize and classify your data
- Eliminate stale files and unnecessary data
- Take special note of sensitive data.
Set Access Limits:
- Grant access to only to files employees need
- Set up expiring passwords and accounts for employees
- Revoke the accessibility of employee who resigns
Monitor Vigilantly:
- Stay up to date on the latest cyberattacks
- Keep software up to date across the network
- Check for unusual activity, internal and external
Respond Quickly
- Act on alerts and detect unusual activity
- In the event of a breach, notify concerned authorities and agencies
- Recover and secure any compromised data
In Conclusion
As data breaches have become inevitable in the present era, it is the responsibility of the organizations and consumers to act quickly in the event of a breach. Being proactive can have a great impact on reducing the damages due to cyber-attack.