This fall, the Ponemon Institute released its Fourth Annual study, Is Your Company Ready for a Big Data Breach? on data breach corporate preparedness, which revealed that 52 percent of companies experienced data breaches just this past year alone. This number has gradually increased from 33 percent in 2013 and is impacting all sizes of organizations across all industries. The growing threat has made cybersecurity a top priority for many companies, as they know it is no longer a matter of if, but when a breach will occur. The good news is that most companies (82 percent) have taken the first step in preparing for an incident by creating a data breach response plan. The bad news, however, is that these organizations are not confident in the effectiveness of their plan, with only 42 percent of respondents who said their plan was effective or very effective.
This lack of confidence highlights the need for companies to move beyond just a plan, to a dynamic program that considers the ever-changing world of cybersecurity. Over the past four years that Experian has partnered with the Ponemon Institute to conduct this study, several areas of preparedness where we expected to see growth have largely remained stagnant. This lack of advancement indicates a level of complacency that is certainly concerning.