If given the option, most U.S. businesses would rather fork out loads of cash than deal with a data breach gone public.
Bitdefender, a Romania-based company, just published research that supports this claim.
In October, they interviewed IT decision makers at enterprise firms. Two-thirds of the 250 folks interviewed say their companies would pay $124,000 to avoid public shaming following a data breach, and 14 percent would even go so far as to pay $500,000.
“The willingness to pay a vast sum of money highlights just how much devastation a successful cyberattack can cause,” according to a story published on ZDnet.com this week.
Hackers clearly understand this sentiment, which likely accounts for the uptick in ransomware attacks.
The survey, which iSense Solutions conducted, also suggests that “up to 34 percent of companies in the U.S. may have been breached in the past 12 months — and the majority, 74 percent, do not know how it happened,” according to the story.
Is your business covered for a data breach?
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