The $6.75 Million Dollar Laptop
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Dan Yost Chief Technology Officer of MyLaptopGPS brought attention to the Ponemon Institute, with sponsorship from PGP, has released their “Fifth Annual U.S. Cost of Data Breach Study.” As usual, the report is a treasure trove of great data (just like most people’s laptops are).
The average cost per breached data record rose $2 in 2009, to $204. That’s actually not too bad. The average cost of a breach was $6.75 million, compared to $6.65 million in 2008.
PC World has a good article to summarize, and thanks to lyger at DataLossDB for the pointer.
Not very many businesses are taking serious note of the fact that, on average, they have $6.75 million laptops walking around out there. For those who are, our hats are off.
Here’s an interesting excerpt:
“Overall, 42% of all cases in the Ponemon data-breach study involved third-party mistakes and flubs. In addition, more than 82% of the cases in the Ponemon study were organizations that had more than one data breach in 2009 involving the loss or theft of more than 1,000 records containing personal information. At about 40% of the companies that participated in the study, the chief information security officer (CISO) was in charge of managing the response related to the data breach.”
And how about the maximum data breach cost in the study? $31 million.
That’s a rather expensive laptop, and probably worth a few dollars to protect instead. (Note: the breach may actually have been the result of something other than a lost/stolen laptop, such as a network break-in).
The least expensive breach? $750,000. That beats $31 million, but $750k is still a pretty penny to pay, compared to protection.
Many thanks to Ponemon and PGP for another excellent study.
Protect your identity.
1. Get a credit freeze. Click on the preceding link and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.
2. Invest in anti-virus and keep it auto-updated and check out my spyware killer IDTheftSecurty HERE
3. Go to my website and get my FREE ebook on how to protect yourself from the bad guy.
4. Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing laptop security on The Today Show
