Data has become the fuel that drives major portions of the modern economy, and many tech companies depend on that fuel. But the increased importance has made these troves of data more attractive targets to hackers and other bad actors. With the current trend toward digital transformation and the importance of data in machine learning, sensitive information increasingly resides on third-party cloud servers, introducing additional security risks. Even locally stored data could be at risk—including potential breaches or careless or malicious employees. Any breach of data, whether locally or at the cloud level, can cause significant disruption to business operations.
Beyond the direct business impact of data security breaches, regulators are also taking a sharper look when it comes to business’ data liability. Data security, or lack thereof, poses a direct risk to consumer privacy, as it subverts the purpose for which personal information was disclosed and subjects the consumer to loss of privacy, financial harm, falling victim to scams, and other potential negative consequences.
