Data Breach

If your business collects or stores information from customers, suppliers, partners or employees, there is a risk of that data falling into the wrong hands.

What's a data breach?

A data breach happens when a cyber criminal accesses your systems through hacking, phishing, and malware to steal your data, such as business records, credit card information or intellectual property.

A data breach can also happen from human error, like an employee accidentally sending data to the wrong person.

How can it affect your business?

  • Loss of trust and business reputation
  • Incurred costs to patch and restore systems
  • Result in loss of intellectual property
  • Loss of money if your accounts are targeted
  • Loss of revenue while your systems are being restored
  • May result in fines or penalties for breaching customer privacy

Tips on how to stay protected

  • Have an incident response plan in place that maps where all your data is stored, the risks, how you can reduce the risk and what your response will be if there is a breach
  • Educate your staff on how to spot a phishing email and malware
  • Educate staff on good data management, such as encrypting data before sharing, or password protecting it
  • Don't forget about your physical data, such as paperwork and USB sticks. Make sure that staff know to store securely and if destroying it, make sure it's done right
  • Use strong and complex passwords or passphrase
  • Install and update your anti-virus and firewalls