Are companies ready for today's sophisticated cybercriminals and impact of data breaches? Experian's new study says that progress has been made, but companies need to do better. 

Fifty-six percent of organizations experienced a data breach involving more than 1,000 records over the past two years, and of those, 37 percent occurred two to three times and 39 percent were global in scope, according to Experian. 

Eighty-four percent of CISOs in North America believe cybersecurity breaches are inevitable, and a lack of influence in the boardroom is making it difficult to justify the necessary cybersecurity budgets.

If a data breach can happen to Home Depot and Target, it can happen to us,” says Lee Bailey, Director of IT Security and Operations for ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, a mid-sized business in Florida with 140 locations and around 1,000 employees.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Although catchy, we all know that the real keys to success after failure are reflection and adaptation, not mere persistence.

Being adequately prepared to respond to a data breach is an ever-changing game – new threats are emerging, new regulations are being put into place and companies must regularly re-evaluate their response plans to ensure they are applicable to today’s threat landscape. Unfortunately, many companies are not reviewing and updating their plans frequently enough – in fact, only 25 percent of companies say they update their response plans once or twice a year. Not to mention that no matter how well prepared and updated a company’s plan is, an actual live breach response can present unforeseen challenges that cause companies to stumble. 

We find ourselves in the middle of football season as we tackle the NIST Cybersecurity Framework’s “Respond” function.