Survey Says: Bad PR Due to Data Breach News, Very Bad for Businesses

Companies hate bad PR; many of them hire external PR firms in order to re-engage their respective communities and target markets in order to lessen if not cancel the impact of a bad PR at all cost. However, there is a type of bad PR that PR companies will never solve, and that is the news of the company’s IT infrastructure getting hacked, customer information leakage and its computers infected by malware.

There were instances that being a victim of a very controversial IT issue, like what happened with Diginotar Certificate Authority in 2011 can cause a company to exit the business. Such risks in business entities in relation to the loss of customer trust after a devastating IT security fiasco has been highlighted in the recently released Ping Identity 2018 Consumer Survey.

In the survey, Ping Identity mentioned that 78% of surveyed consumers will fully stop not engage with a brand connected with a cybersecurity issue. 36% of respondend strongly expressed its desire to stay out of any relationship with a business entity with a damaged reputation due to a security breach.

This is seen by companies as a huge challenge to overcome; 47% of customers will look for ways to secure their personally identifiable information. There is a growing appreciation for the need to increase data security, as 54% of those surveyed mentioned that data security today is more important than last year.

“With the prevalence of data breaches and leaks, enterprises must have the proper controls in place or they become at risk of losing consumer trust and business. In the same way that brands are expected to provide user-friendly experiences, they also must understand the value and importance of strong identity management strategies. The findings from our 2018 survey reveal the extent to which consumers value security and rely on the brands they interact with to provide a layer of protection when it comes to their identity and personal information,” explained Sara Squire of Ping Identity’s CTO Office.

Of all the age group, the generation of 35 years old and younger being exposed to wider communication channels and brands often trust brands they trust enough mitigation plans preventing a security breach. That testament is inversely proportional from those people over 55 years old. “53 percent of respondents under 35 feel confident or very confident in online services and applications providers’ ability to protect their personal information, compared with 27 percent of those over 55. 54 percent of respondents under 35 are willing to input their bank information on a website or application, compared with 41 percent of those over 55. 37 percent of respondents under 35 are not willing to pay anything to ensure their personal information is never breached, compared with 62 percent of those over 55,” said in the report.

Americans are a special mentioned in the survey, for being lax when it comes to handling their personally identifiable information. Ping Identity Report disclosed that 16% of Americans are willingly sharing their social security numbers with brands, disregarding the risks. This is much higher than the French which seconded the survey for being the most trusting @9%.