The Long-Term Effects of a Data Breach

Despite companies adopting better security measures, cyberattacks like malware, phishing, social engineering, and insider threats continue to be some of the biggest and most severe forms of attacks.

According to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, 94% of malware was delivered by email and 34% of data breaches involved insiders.

While companies are increasingly using enhanced technologies to protect their data from breaches, attackers are also leveraging the latest technologies to conduct more sophisticated attacks that are hard to detect quickly, with new viruses and malware being discovered on a regular basis. For example, the Monero cryptojacking malware which was found during a cryptojacking investigation that secretly attacked a company for over a year.

Data breaches can expose an organization’s sensitive data such as customer personal information like user IDs, passwords, and credit card information, or cause loss or unavailability of data for further use, e.g. if the data is held by ransomware.

One of the most severe long-term effects of a data breach is its cost. When a company experiences a data breach, it often has to hire security specialists and engineers to contain the breach or conduct a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the breach.

These are just the surface-level costs. There may be more hidden costs related to data breaches as well. For instance, legal fees, penalties, and fines.

From small companies to global multinational corporations, a data breach can have a severe impact on any business around the world.

Take a look at this infographic which looks at how a data breach has long-term impacts on an organization: