The realities of a breach
When a business suffers a data breach, many things can happen. The business will typically notify those affected, they will hire security firms to investigate, they will implement new tools and policies to hopefully prevent a future breach, and sometimes the business may file for bankruptcy or even close its doors permanently. The American Medical Collection Agency, the business responsible for an eight-month long data breach affecting both LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics patients, has filed for bankruptcy.
Data breaches can have devastating outcomes for small businesses. According to the 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, small businesses fall victim the most often being victims for 43% of the reported breaches Verizon investigated. This makes it critical for small business to have policies and procedures in place to help protect their sensitive business data. The small business needs to consistently train its employees and needs to annually test their own systems for any weaknesses.