Word is traveling fast about the next biggest data breach in history, and it has finally come. Yahoo’s security was breached in 2014, but it wasn’t until Sept 22, of 2016 that users started being notified of their accounts possibly being at risk. This data breach is believed to have put more than 500 million accounts at risk. This is more than the entire US, Canadian, and Mexican population together. But all of this is to come with a heavy price to Yahoo. Yahoo was in the process of being bought out by Verizon, and this breach is expected to send yahoo’s worth down by at least $100 million.
This goes to show how sensitive customer data is. If you’re a company as big as Yahoo, the pressure of maintaining security on customer’s data can become overwhelming. A fault in security like this could destroy your company or business and end up costing you more than it’s worth. Even if a security breach like this was to be overcome by a company, the reputation of that company will be forever damaged, and as any business or company knows, reputation is everything. When the lack of security becomes such a problem that it could cost customers large amounts of money simply for doing business with you, this shows the negligence of your business or company to customer care. This negligence often times creates a reputation that can be impossible to shake. To make matters worse, Yahoo’s delay in notifying customers of the data breach crosses many legal lines.
Most businesses and companies today make customers their number one priority, but can still find flaws that lead to vulnerable customer data. Securing this data becomes your next biggest task. Almost everything is done online today and as the world becomes more digital, people often neglect that the only thing protecting their private information is virtual walls that can easily be climbed over by any hackers. Through the cloud, wireless internet systems, and lost devices, there is an endless list of possibilities for hackers. As businesses and companies, we have a responsibility to secure this data given to us at all costs, a lag in security should be intolerable. Yahoo has had a history of these security problems and one of its main focuses was to create a more secure environment for their users. That fault finally caught up with them in 2014 and could cost the company millions of dollars and a major decrease in future growth.
Don’t let a lag in security drag on for too long in your business. Just as you would want customers to feel safe in your store, you would want them to feel safe online. This is where customer care becomes the number one priority even for online businesses and companies. Making sure your business invests in quality cloud services and wireless internet systems can make a big difference in securing data.