Many American business big shots are clueless.

They don’t understand how customers and employees now view data breaches.

That is the conclusion reached by several studies, including one from Shred-it, an information security company.

American businesses are ignoring “the serious impact any data breach can have on their reputations and bottom line,” according to the latest Shred-it report.

Shred-it, which interviewed 100 corporate executives, 1,000 small business owners and 2,000 members of the general public, said business relationships can be fragile.

For example, 35% of customers indicated “they would lose trust in an organization following a data breach.”

Shred-it’s 2019 Data Protection Report found “66 percent of Americans do not believe that all digital data breaches are disclosed.” A large percentage of employees also said they would consider leaving a company that had a data breach.

Gemalto, a digital security company, found an anomaly: Customers are willing to take risks online but blame the company for problems.

Only 29% believe companies will make serious efforts to protect data, and 58% think data will be breached, according to the survey of 9,000 customers. Two-thirds told Gemalto they will not work with companies that have data breaches.



Shred-it officials found three themes: “a growing sense of denial among business leaders that information security is a real concern; a growing risk among every company’s employee base that breaches could impact retention; and a growing willingness among the general public to hold any company suffering a breach accountable.”

Over the last decade, about 10,000 data breaches occurred in the US. They resulted in 11 billion records and $1.6 trillion stolen, Comparitech said.

Comparitech said California recorded the largest number of data breaches. New York was second.