Business leaders who fail to properly prepare for an eventual theft or corruption of valuable company data do a disservice to their company’s stakeholders, in particular its shareholders and customers. Boards, officers and other senior-level managers who do not recognize the pervasiveness of data breaches leave their organizations legally vulnerable to state and federal authorities, as well as to private claimants.
In 1982, just 34 percent of the market value of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was composed of intangible assets. By 1999, that number had increased to 84 percent. Combine that statistic with a report issued last September by the independent Ponemon Institute, which performs research related to privacy, data protection and information security, founding that 43 percent of U.S. respondents suffered a data breach during the previous year and it is apparent that companies’ valuable assets are more than ever susceptible to attack.
