Customers Aren’t the Only Victims: 5 Stages Of Data Breach Grief
What can we learn from organizations that have experienced a data beach? For one thing, infosec teams on the front lines of cyber security are also victims.
What can we learn from organizations that have experienced a data beach? For one thing, infosec teams on the front lines of cyber security are also victims.
Data breaches are now common events that affect an organization in many ways besides attorney fees, lost business, reputational damage, and system remediation costs. Back in 1970, in a now classic book, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote On Death and Dying, which identified five stages of grieving and emotions that terminally ill patients experience. It is my contention that organizations have to deal with similar data breach grief.
- Denial. The organization’s initial reaction helps soften the realization that technology, people or business processes have broken down and customer data has been exposed, leaked, or compromised. This stage may last for a few hours, days, or months depending on when the organization confirmed the breach.
- Anger. All organizations have irate doubters who refuse to acknowledge a data breach was caused by a software programming error or a lost laptop with unencrypted data, or that the compromised system did not follow established security hardening procedures.
- Bargaining. There are always people in an organization who will insist that they just need another chance and they insist that a breach will not happen again. This is despite the fact that customer data is already in the “Internet wild.” Promising to do better in the future is neither timely nor practical.
- Depression. All organizations wish they had handled things differently. There will be individuals who will be unable to concentrate and second-guess their plan of action to contain the breach.
- Acceptance. It is typically very difficult to recognize when the critical fifth and final stage is reached after a confirmed data breach. However, it is at this point that management understands that security needs to be an ongoing process in order to protect the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the customer data.
http://www.darkreading.com/operations/customers-arent-the-only-victims-5-stages-of-data-breach-grief/a/d-id/1319216
Are your systems optimized for maximum speed and performance? (I can tell you, 99% of the computer networks we review are NOT.
Call Group 4 Networks your IT Support provider from Toronto to help you with all your IT needs.
