Suffering in silence with data leaks

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It's all a matter of money

Until it costs a business more to fix breaches than it does their security, nothing will happen.

The way most businesses look at this is simple: it costs me a little bad PR (Public Relations) if we have a break-in. I can sweep it under the rug and let the consumers deal with the aftermath. If I fix my systems and business processes, this costs me real money and time. And it would cost a little bad PR because it would admit my systems weren't secure in the first place. So let's see: both have bad PR but one costs me significantly more than the other. Gee, that's a simple decision.

So let's turn the tables and try this one out. If you have a security breach, you are responsible for cleaning up the mess. That means:

* You must pay for any fradulent charges
* You must pay for the reissue of credit/debit cards
* You must pay a fine to each consumer to compensate them for their time in fixing their credit
* You must pay a fine to the government for each account compromised
* If you have a security breach, you don't report it, and we subsequently find out, you go to jail. No, no, not your company, you Mr./Ms. CEO, you personally go to jail because you're an idiot and couldn't manage your business.

We could argue individual items but here's the point: under this scenario, it is much more expensive and risky to have a security breach than not to. Since it is less expensive to be secure than not, guess what path business who traffic in personal data will do?

Posted by: bitflippper1   Posted on: 03/29/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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