business
‘‘
TALKING
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• Combat domain spoofing –
organisations should proactively monitor
for the registration of malicious domains
and have a defined process of dealing
with infringements when they occur. An
agile and scalable takedown capability is
critical for combating domain spoofing.
• Combat the ‘bots’ – monitor social
media for brand mentions and seek to
detect the ‘bots’, though it’s not always
immediately obvious, there are often
clues such as looking at the age of the
account, the content being posted, and
the number of friends and followers.
• Monitor forums for information that
could manipulate the share price –
organisations should search for mentions
of their brand or staff across forums,
which could be instances of malicious
actors spreading disinformation.
• Keep an eye on trending activity –
monitor trending activity as it relates to
an organisation’s digital footprint and
potentially identify disinformation activity.
Fake news and disinformation is not a new
phenomenon, and it will not be going away
anytime soon and indeed the continuing
digitisation and move to less traditional
media sources is only likely to accelerate
the issue further. The blurring between truth
and fiction is often difficult to ascertain
but businesses need to ensure they do all
they can to monitor and protect their own
reputations to ensure next time it is not
them in the crosshairs of the attacker. n
“
THE BLURRING
BETWEEN TRUTH
AND FICTION IS
OFTEN DIFFICULT
TO ASCERTAIN BUT
BUSINESSES NEED
TO ENSURE THEY
DO ALL THEY CAN
TO MONITOR AND
PROTECT THEIR
OWN REPUTATIONS.
36
INTELLIGENTCIO
Companies face losing 70% of
consumers following a data breach
A
majority (70%) of consumers
would stop doing business with
a company if it experienced a
data breach, according to a survey of
more than 10,000 consumers worldwide
conducted on behalf of Gemalto, the
world leader in digital security. In addition,
seven in ten consumers (69%) feel
businesses don’t take the security of
customer data very seriously.
Despite these concerns, the Gemalto
study found that consumers are failing to
adequately secure themselves, with over
half (56%) still using the same password
for multiple online accounts. Even when
businesses offer robust security solutions,
such as two-factor authentication, two
fifths (41%) of consumers admit to not
using the technology to secure social
media accounts, leaving them vulnerable
to data breaches.
This may be because the majority of
consumers (62%) believe the business
holding their data is mostly responsible for
its security. This is resulting in businesses
being forced to take additional steps to
protect consumers and enforce robust
security measures, as well as educate
them on the benefits of adopting these.
Retailers (61%), banks (59%) and social
media sites (58%) were found to have
a lot of work to do, with these being
sectors that consumers would leave if they
suffered a breach.
“Consumers are evidently happy to
relinquish the responsibility of protecting
their data to a business, but are expecting
it to be kept secure without any effort on
their part,” says Jason Hart, CTO, Identity
and Data Protection at Gemalto. “In the
face of upcoming data regulations such as
GDPR, it’s now up to businesses to ensure
they are forcing security protocols on
their customers to keep data secure. It’s
no longer enough to offer these solutions
as an option. These protocols must be
mandatory from the start – otherwise
businesses will face not only financial
consequences, but also potentially legal
action from consumers.”
Despite their behaviour, consumers’
security concerns are high, as two thirds
(67%) worry they will be victims of a data
breach in the near future. Consequently,
consumers now hold businesses
accountable – if their data is stolen, the
majority (93%) of consumers would take,
or consider taking, legal action against the
compromised business.
Consumers trust some industries
more than others
When it comes to the businesses that
consumers trust least, over half (58%)
believe that social media sites are one
of the biggest threats to their data, with
one in five (20%) fearful of travel sites –
worryingly, one in ten (9%) think no sites
pose a risk to them. On the other hand, a
third (33%) of consumers trust banks the
most with their personal data, despite them
being frequent targets and victims of data
breaches, with industry certified bodies
(12%), device manufacturers (11%) and
the government (10%) next on the list.
Hart continues, “It’s astonishing that
consumers are now putting their own data
at risk, by failing to use these measures,
despite growing concerns around their
security. It’s resulting in an alarming
amount of breaches – 80% – being
caused by weak or previously stolen
credentials. Something has to change
soon on both the business and consumer
sides or this is only going to get worse.”
About the survey
10,500 adult consumers were interviewed
by Vanson Bourne globally. Countries
included were the US, UK, France,
Germany, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil,
Benelux, UAE and South Africa. All of
those surveyed actively use online/mobile
banking, social media accounts or online
retail accounts. n
www.intelligentcio.com