The Hidden Costs of Data Breaches and How to Avoid Them

Today’s society has grown all too accustomed to hearing yet another well-known company listed in the headlines as the latest victims of a massive data breach. By the time we hear this news, the company-and often its customers-have already suffered losses. Some of these losses are obvious, like the loss of data stolen by hackers. There are also significant hidden costs of data breaches that were recently calculated as high as $350 million in a July 2018 global study conducted by IBM.

The hidden costs of data breaches include:

Lost business:
While a company is recovering from a data breach, their systems might be down or compromised. Some companies elect to cease operations all together until security can be restored. The cost of this lost business adds up by the second. Most of these breaches stem from a malicious or criminal attach (instead of a glitch or human error) so in addition to repairing the damage, cybersecurity professionals must also shore up the vulnerabilities that allowed the attack to happen in the first place.

Lost time:
While the damage accrues quickly, the process to identify and contain a breach often does not. According to this latest report, companies took an average of 197 to identify a data breach. Once identified, it takes an average of 69 days to contain the breach. If companies were able to contain a breach faster (i.e. in less than 30 days), they saved over $1 million dollars. There’s also the hidden cost of shifting employee resources and time during a breach or containment period. Work and focus on current projects often shuts down as all hands on deck address the crisis. In the cast of a large company, this can also demand an entire marketing campaign to message the results of the breach and company response to customers.

Lost reputation:
The reputational damage caused by a data breach can be the most painful to bear for companies. These costs are often hidden because it’s difficult to capture clients who would have been had they not heard of a company’s breach. Customers also seem to react and respond differently depending on the type of data lost in a breach. In a 2011 study on the impact of data breach on company reputation, most people surveyed were more concerned if their personal, confidential information was lost or stolen compared to their employee files. They also estimated that it would take 8 months to 1 year for a company to recover from the damage caused by a breach. Communicating a breach early, thoroughly, and providing updates to customers were noted as best practices to preserve and regain reputation following a breach.

Recognizing the hidden costs of data loss should provide additional motivation to pursue a dedicated data loss prevention strategy. Whether you own a company or have your data saved by hundreds of companies, we’re all impacted by data breaches. Challenge the companies that you trust your data with to protect it as if it was their own.

source: securedatarecovery.com

ISPs Can Now Sell Your Data: How to Protect Yourself

This spring, Congress and then President Trump rolled back protections for consumers that previously prevented Internet Service Providers (ISP) from collecting and selling personal data. While consumers grumbled, advertisers have celebrated. ISPs can now profit from the sales of data they weren’t previously allowed to collect and personal marketing profiles can be created to boost online sales.

How ISPs can Collect Data

There are several ways that ISPs can now collect data for profit. From basic monitoring of internet activities, ISPs can accumulated data on websites that users visits, how much time they spend there, which links they click, and which products they ultimately buy. To bolster demographic information on potential customers, ISPs can use deep packet inspection to uncover personal information that is often grouped together, like name, age, and location. ISPs can also use beacons, found within mobile data, to pinpoint the exact location of users. You might have noticed that some services have already used this data. Apps can remind us to use a coupon or take advantage of a sale when we’re in close proximity to the store. The difference lies in user opt-in for these services. Under these new regulations, users don’t opt-in and they can’t opt-out. Finally, ISPs can now respond to government requests for personal data. These requests could be used for positive purposes, like stopping a potential terrorist attack, or they could be utilized as yet another source of profit for ISPs.

Will ISPs Sell My Data?

While many people have doubts that ISPs will stick to promises to honor their customer’s privacy, Brian Dietz from the Internet and Television Association told the Washington Post, “"Regardless of the legal status of the FCC’s broadband privacy rules, we remain committed to protecting our customers’ privacy and safeguarding their information because we value their trust.” Time will tell whether ISPs will give in to the temptation to sell out customers’ data for potentially massive profits.

What Can I Do to Protect my Data?

It will be important than ever for users to pay more attention to their online behavior. Whenever possible, use the secure version of websites (HTTPS). ISPs will still be able to collect some data but not as much. A Chrome app can help users remember to use HTTPs whenever possible. VPNs are another way to protect user data. This solution isn’t without problems though because some sites, like Netflix, block VPNs. Many suspect fewer VPNs will be available with China’s demands to pull them from the App Store.

With fewer ways to protect your data online, it’s even more important to guard your offline data. Practice regular backups. If you experience data loss, trust Secure Data’s commitment to complete confidentiality throughout the entire recovery process.

source: securedatarecovery.com

How to Remove a Trojan Virus and Recover Lost Files

Anyone who uses a computer understands that Trojan viruses or other malware can release a storm of problems on your PC. Here are some quick tips on removing a Trojan virus and other malware to recover lost files on your computer. 



What Can Malware do to your Computer? 


To understand how to remove malware, you first have to understand how they work. There are a number of different malware categories, including:


Adware
Backdoor
Hijackers
Dialers
Spyware
Virus
Worm

Malware typically comes from corrupted downloads. Specifically, a Trojan virus appears innocent on the surface, but has been designed to unleash havoc on your system. Sometimes, it provides a backdoor entry to your computer system, or download more dangerous software on your hard drive in the future.

Removing a Trojan Virus

Typical computer Viruses, on the other hand, self-replicate themselves and infect other files or programs on your computer. Whether or not you can eliminate a Trojan virus will depend on the severity. In this case, when removing a Trojan virus, it’s always recommended taking it to a data recovery professional. There are anti-malware programs, however, that prevent and eliminate these attacks from occurring. We recommend Autoruns from Sysinternals. The software is free, and it provides you with a detailed report of potential malware threats and how to get rid of them. For the most part, the programs that run through Autoruns will be safe from cyber-threats. But remember, before you delete anything, first examine the files that are currently being scanned from Autoruns. Once you determine that those files are corrupt or safe to delete, you can use an anti-virus program to safely remove them.

Recovering Lost Files on your Hard Drive

To recover a lost file, we normally recommend taking the proactive approach and backing up your data. It’s much easier to use a backup than it is to try to recover your information after a malware-attack. You can also check the recycling bin for deleted files. Getting into the habit of creating backups could save you a lot of headache and frustration later. You could also consider using file recovery software to restore data that has been emptied from the recycling bin. We recommend Recuva Portable because it’s free, easy to use for beginners, and it has an impressive success rate. It will even give you a preview of the images that you can recover. Whether you need to recover lost files or figure out how to remove a Trojan virus, contact the experts at Secure Data Recover for help you can trust!

source:  securedatarecovery.com

How Much Does Data Recovery Cost?

Almost all reputable data recovery companies will charge for individual scenarios, and that has sometimes led to confusion about the rate for professional services. To put it simply, in most cases you are not given a single flat rate. This is because the average data recovery cost comes with hidden fees. In a lot of cases, a data recovery company you contact will give you a broad-ranging quote that makes it impossible to know how much you will actually pay. Once you hand your device or PC over, you are in a weaker position, so that’s why you get a quote up front.

Different Way To Charge For Data Recovery Services
 
When you visit a quality data recovery company, you should know what to expect early on in the transaction. Transparency is important and can be based on a few factors: • Size of the drive • Problem with your device • Whether previous attempts to recover have worked In most cases, problems will fall into the following categories: Basic, Firmware or Mechanical. Basic looks at bad sectors, deleted data and data corruption. Firmware address damage or corruption to components that needs repairing. If there is a mechanical problem, that sometimes cost extra. This happens because technicians have to slowly go through every part of your computer to see where it’s going wrong and there are replacement costs. A well-regarded company describes any pricing options with its customers before starting any work.

Data recovery questions and answers
 
We get a ton of questions about the cost of data recovery services. Here are a few answers to those frequently asked questions.

How much do data recovery services cost upfront?

In all but the rarest of circumstances, you do not need to pay a fee for our services before we do any work. You will only pay after we successfully recover your missing data. Should you decide you need it, we offer prepaid shipping so that you can send us your device for an evaluation.

Will you give an estimate?
 
You do not have to walk into our data recovery services blindly. Yes, we give our customers free data recovery evaluations. We also have a risk-free data recovery evaluation for almost every technological device. Some of the components we often work with include: • RAID Arrays • Hard Drives • Servers • Systems Our evaluation includes a diagnostics report with detailed information about whether our services will be the best choice for you. The report includes a list of the recoverable files, an accurate price estimate and an estimated turnaround time for your issue. What if there is no way to recover my files? Because we have top-of-the-line technology with qualified and reputable experts, we can help you to stop losing information from almost all devices. Unfortunately, there are cases where we cannot recover the data. When that happens, we do not charge fees. We understand. We would not want to pay for services that didn’t work, either.

How much does data recovery cost?

That depends on who you use and what type of services you need. Get a quote in advance and don’t work with anyone who won’t do that for you. You want to entrust your data recovery efforts to an expert who will not just take your money.

source: securedatarecovery.com

5 Ways Small Businesses Must Protect their Data

Cyber security is a new concern for all businesses. Big hacks, like the Target, Home Depot, and Sony attacks, have only emphasized how much small businesses need to protect themselves. Large businesses have a lot of resources to do this, but small businesses often do not have the budget or knowledge to perform due diligence against cyber security attacks. Here are 5 ways a small business can protect itself from data threats.

Protecting Small Business Data: Backup
The new threat on the block is ransomware. Symantec estimates that 60% of small businesses face significant financial hardships after being attacked by ransomware. Some of these businesses even discontinue service or go out of business as a result of the attacks. Ransomware encrypts important files, like documents, pictures, and CAD files, on a PC. The local PC isn’t the only victim either. Ransomware will also attempt to reach out to other PCs on the network, especially mapped network drives. Once the ransomware finishes encrypting files and drives, the software demands money to un-encrypt the data that the business can no longer access. The ransom can be expensive.

Small business can’t afford that kind of monetary hit. However, if a system gets attacked by ransomware and the business has a quality backup, the business can simply wipe the PC and start over. Re-imaging a PC and restoring data only takes a day or two and saves the business thousands of dollars. Backing up and protecting small business data is easy. There are a lot of good, online services that automate this process for an affordable yearly fee. Likewise, it’s easy enough to setup on your own. The important thing is to keep 3 different backups for the 3 different time periods for each PC. Each backup set needs to be kept on-site, off-site but local, and not local. This ensures that data is saved in case a business goes up in flames or the offsite backup is hit by a natural or man-made disaster. Data storage is cheap today so there’s a backup is an easy choice..

Protecting Small Business Data: Switch to the Cloud
The cloud is still a scary thing for businesses. I understand why. Using a cloud infrastructure means that businesses have to hand over control of their IT systems and depend on another business to stay in business. Think of it this way, though, cloud businesses build their business on reliability, speed, and security. Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s S3 services are incredibly powerful. They both have over a 99% uptime guarantee in their Service Level Agreements. Both replicate data in servers throughout the country. Both backup data. Microsoft has the advantage of adding their entire Office Suite in the cloud, too. Best of all, cloud services can lower ownership expenses.

Protecting Small Business Data: Purchase, Update Quality AV
Antivirus protection is still needed in today’s environment. By now we shouldn’t have to warn anyone to install a quality antivirus program and keep it up-to-date. So many businesses still don’t follow this basic rule, though. This is something that any small business can implement in a few hours and automate.

Protecting Small Business Data: Restrict Admin Accounts
Most small businesses buy a few PCs and attach them to a small local area network. They don’t use domain services or group policies. That’s okay. It’s not always appropriate for a small business to utilize these kinds of services. It is important to make sure that employees aren’t using admin accounts on their PCs, though. Admin accounts are setup by default. Changing a user’s profile from being an admin to a standard user eliminates 90% of virus and attack-ware threats. Employees can always elevate privileges on the PC when they need to install software.

Protecting Small Business Data: Education
Nothing is more important than education. Employee education can significantly reduce the threat of cyber attacks. Even simple reminders to avoid opening links or attachments in email will significantly reduce the chances of an attack. Hold monthly education meetings or assign a “security guru” to send out weekly or monthly newsletters for employees to read and act on. These are basic steps but speaking to the last point, awareness and education is a significant part of the battle against data breach and data corruption. Please let us know if you have other questions. The needs of our customers frequently grow in one area or the other, such as the recent spike in ransomware. We might bring your concerns to the blog to help others, as well.

source: securedatarecovery.com