Experts comment on a new report that says that business losses to cybercrime data beaches will exceed $5 trillion by 2024, and that cybersecurity breaches will increase nearly 70% over the next five years, says: Jonathan Deveaux, head of enterprise data protection at comforte AG, says: “SMBs are high targets and may feel the brunt of a data breach more than a larger enterprise. One study found that over 60% of small businesses impacted by a data breach will file for bankruptcy or go out of business within 6 months after reporting the incident. The AMCA data breach reported in April 2019 is real-world example of how a company responsible for compromising data from 20 million people filed for Chapter 11 within 3 months following the incident. Due to possible violations of HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), the initial costs of over $4M to inform affected customers and to hire consultants to rectify the breach were too much for the small company to bear, as their employee headcount also dropped from 113 to 25. It is clear that the costs of a data breach are detrimental to a business. However, there is more at stake than monetary costs, including immeasurable brand and trust damage. Having to lay off employees and losing the business altogether is far worse than paying fines and fees. Hopefully business leaders will shift to a ‘security-first’ mindset to adopt stronger, more effective data security methods, which greatly help reduce the risks associated with data breaches.”
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