Pro-Active News Blog

It's not just the fines to worry about>

Much has been made of the new fines that have been set in the new General Data Protection Regulation, which can be up to €20m or 4% of global turnover.

If that doesn’t grab your attention, then consider the reputational and financial damage that is possible from a significant data breach.

In late 2013, Target (a major US discount retailer) was subject to a hack after malware was introduced to 1,800+ stores. It was believed to be the result of an external HVAC contractor accessing the network.

A reporter broke the news and Target admitted that over 40 million customer records were compromised, including encrypted PINs.

The fall out and ramifications for Target included:

• Revenue fell 5%
• Profits fell by over 50%
• The CFO had to apologise to congress
• The CIO had to resign
• The CEO had to resign
• The cost to the retail giant was $162m in 2014 alone and the Total damages paid out could exceed US$1 billion before all is said and done!

So it is worth remembering that the consequences are far wider reaching than a potential 4% fine on global turnover!