I’ve been putting a considerable amount of time over the last few months into raising public awareness of the current state of cyber crime. Large scale breaches such as Home Depot’s are helping to raise awareness – but we can agree that this isn’t a method we’d like to use.

Who’s it costing?

In short, you.

The infographic below, recently released by Authentify, has shed light on the costs of data breaches. The major talking points of this infographic are half way down: So how do I end up with the bill?

When a retailer suffers a large scale data breach (Target, Home Depot) they incur major costs that affect you. It’s common practice for organizations to raise prices on products in an effort to help cover the cost of data breaches such as fines and insurance premiums.

While retailers are secretly dropping their costs on you, credit card providers are doing the same. When a data breach occurs involving payment information, credit card providers are required to issue new cards. You won’t be asked to pay directly, but don’t be surprised when interest rates creep up.

For me, the worst of the points made in this infographic is about the loss of jobs. 500,000 people have lost their job due to organizations not taking care of customer data – seem fair?

I’m hoping that these statistics have shocked you, meaning one more person is aware of the current state of cyber crime. While the number of organizations who are doing information security correctly is going up, it’s not going up fast enough.

Next steps…

The most effective method of getting organizations to improve their security is if their customers demand it. Share this page on twitter using the hashtag #wewantsecurity and let’s see if we can make a difference.