75% Of Consumers Ready To Drop A Brand After Cyberattack

Consumers are speaking loudly when a business suffers a cybersecurity incident. In fact, 75% say they're ready to leave a brand after it’s been hacked. Research shows consumers aren't as forgiving as they used to be, even when they may be the reason for the incident.

In light of increasing and more sophisticated cybercrimes, it's mostly the consumer who pays the price for a hacking incident since their PII is involved. Research by Vercara finds last year, businesses experienced 800,000 cyberattacks, 4,000 of them ransomware attacks, and 600,000 were distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

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Losing valuable PII to those behind a security breach is just the beginning, with some victims experiencing continued attacks long after the initial breach. Finding blame with a business for a lack of robust security putting their PII at risk is understandable. With consumer confidence on the line with most data breaches, Vercara shows how they're reacting toward a business after a cyber incident.

• 44% blame a business for having inadequate security
• 66% lose trust in a business after a cyberattack exposes their PII
• 54% are willing to cut smaller businesses a break after a cyberattack, as opposed to placing greater responsibility on larger businesses

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Any way you slice it, consumer confidence and trust are on the line with cyber incidents. However, that means consumers aren't totally off the hook when it comes to data breaches. Research shows 55% of employees use their company device for shopping online. Doing so can put a business at risk of a cyberattack especially when socially engineered phishing attacks are on the rise.

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• Put restrictions on where people can browse to the extent that it protects the organization, but limits risks.
• Perform that cybersecurity awareness training regularly! That means more than once a year. Make it ongoing to address the threats that pop up all the time.
• Require strong passwords for employees that need to be changed regularly and enable multi-factor authentication for logins.
• Put a mobile policy in place that limits the organization’s exposure to employees and others connecting to the production WiFi with personal devices.
• Don’t forget to enforce policies.

Since consumer confidence and trust in a brand are two pillars of success most businesses can't do without, improvements are needed. With 91% of all cyberattacks start via phishing, businesses need to provide ongoing employee cyber education. Both consumers and employees need to understand their own behavior online can contribute to corporate data breaches. These combined efforts are part of a much safer online experience.