What You Don't Know Can Put Your Organization at Risk

Here are some examples of the impact a security breach can have when personal information is stolen from an organization:

 

The table below identifies more information about security breaches that includes the company name, impact, and source for more information:

Company Name	Impact	Source
Experian Credit Bureau	15 million T-Mobile customers	The Huffington Post
Democratic National Convention	20,000 emails and thousands of attachments	PC World
Community Health Systems, Inc.	4.5 million patient data stolen including social security numbers	Los Angeles Times
Urban Institute	700,000 nonprofit organizations	The Huffington Post

The Identity Theft Resource Center data states that in 2016 there were 1,093 reported data breaches that included a total of 33.6 million records. This is a 40% increase over 2015 and employee error or negligence caused 8.7% of those breaches.

In benchmark research study sponsored by IBM, the United States averaged $7.01 million in total costs for a data breach in 2016 which is a 7% increase over 2015. The average cost per lost or stolen record is $221 and increases 2015 costs by 2%.

When a security breach happens, not only can it be expensive and take a lot of time to resolve it can also break the trust donors have with your organization. Other ways a breach can have negative impacts include damage to your organization’s reputation and loss of future revenue.