Have you got data breach fatigue?

In the past 12 months alone, over 110 million Americans have had their personal information exposed by hackers. Cyberattacks are featuring so regularly on the news that there is growing concern across all industries that many will become desensitized to the severity of data breaches.

The situation is made more severe when reviewing the latest statistics from Unisys, who in their annual “U.S. Security Index” recorded an overall score of 123 out of a possible 300. The most recent figures mark a moderate level of concern in regards to security, with the last two surveys surprisingly recording the lowest level of concern since the benchmark survey was launched in 2007.

Dave Frymier, Chief Information Security Officer of Unisys Corporation, suspects the moderate level of concern among people is a result of the rate of occurrences with large scale breaches hitting the headlines on a monthly basis.

Frymier says, “Despite highly publicized data breaches and hacker attacks, the majority of people have not been personally harmed by cyber-crimes because the losses are absorbed by businesses and financial institutions.

“This is bad news for businesses, because the average consumer has little incentive to avoid risky online behavior. Businesses and banks will have to decide at what point it becomes more cost-effective to improve their security than to bear the costs of cyber-crime” he continues.

However, with penalties now exceeding $4 million for data breaches, particularly within the healthcare industry, it is crucial that businesses work with employees and consumers to ensure personal information remains secure.

For more on the dos and don’ts of sharing data click here.