Cost of Data Breach Study by Ponemon (2017 vs last year)

Let's take a snapshot of a 2017 security breach study before Equifax breach

• Average cost of data breach decreased from $4MM to 3.62MM
•  Average cost for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information also significantly decreased from $158 to $141
• Decrease in cost is directly proportional to the significantly strong U.S. dollar (and currency rate fluctuation)
• Average size of data breaches increased by 1.8% and trend this year is “larger breaches”
• Global average of breached records is 24,089 with U.S. third at 28,521 (highest is ID at 33,167 and lowest is AU 18,556)
• All participating companies experienced a data breach from 2,600 to 100,000 compromised records
• Per capita cost by industry classification with Healthcare at top $380 ($369 four year average) then Financial $245 ($222 four year average) then Education $200 ($260 four year average)
• Root cause of data breach: 47% Malicious or criminal attack ($155.6 per capital), 28% Human Error ($125.8 per capital) and 25% System glitch ($128.1 per capital)
• Day to identify and contain data breach incidents by root cause [MTTI vs MTTC in days]: Malicious or criminal attack 214 to 77 days, Human Error 168 to 54 days and System glitch 170 to 58 days

Global study source:

•  419 companies in 13 country or regional samples
• $3.62 million is the average total cost of data breach
• 10% one-year decrease in average total cost
• $141 is the average cost per lost or stolen records
• 11.4% one-year decrease in the per capita cost
• 27.7% is the likelihood of a recurring material data breach over the next two years
•  2.1% increase in the likelihood of a recurring material data breach
• 11 countries and 2 regional samples: US, UK, Germany Australia, France, Brazil, Japan, Italy, India, Canada, South Africa, Middle East, ASEAN region (Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia)

Equifax laswsuit filed (here we go)

Bloomberg.com Article source
A proposed class-action lawsuit was filed against Equifax Inc. late Thursday evening, shortly after the company reported that an unprecedented hack had compromised the private information of about 143 million people.

In the complaint filed in Portland, Ore., federal court, users alleged Equifax was negligent in failing to protect consumer data, choosing to save money instead of spending on technical safeguards that could have stopped the attack. Data revealed included Social Security numbers, addresses, driver’s license data, and birth dates. Some credit card information was also put at risk.
Equifax first discovered the vulnerability in late July, though it chose not to announce it publicly until more than a month later. The company was widely criticized for its customer service approach in the aftermath of the hack, as users struggled to understand whether their information had been affected. Others expressed frustration that three senior executives sold about $1.7 million in stock in the days following the discovery of the hack. A spokeswoman for Equifax said the men “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time.”

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Mary McHill and Brook Reinhard. Both reside in Oregon and had their personal information stored by Equifax.
“In an attempt to increase profits, Equifax negligently failed to maintain adequate technological safeguards to protect Ms. McHill and Mr. Reinhard’s information from unauthorized access by hackers,” the complaint stated. “Equifax knew and should have known that failure to maintain adequate technological safeguards would eventually result in a massive data breach. Equifax could have and should have substantially increased the amount of money it spent to protect against cyber-attacks but chose not to.”

The case was filed by the firm Olsen Daines PC along with Geragos & Geragos, a celebrity law firm known for blockbuster class actions. Ben Meiselas, an attorney for Geragos, said the class will seek as much as $70 billion in damages nationally.
Equifax didn’t respond to request for comment on the matter.

Equifax data breach affecting 143 Millions US consumers

Summary of breach from article:

• Equifax said data on 143 million U.S. customers was obtained in a breach [SSN, DoB, DL, Card Numbers)
• The breach was discovered July 29.
• Personal data including birth dates, credit card numbers and more were obtained in the breach.
• Three Equifax executives sold shares in the company days after the breach was discovered [over 2+M]
• And Stocks dropped 13% to $124

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/09/07/credit-reporting-firm-equifax-says-cybersecurity-incident-could-potentially-affect-143-million-us-consumers.html