DuPont, Wash. – Leading up to Data Privacy Day on January 28, 2014, Better Business Bureau serving Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington is teaming up with Online Trust Alliance and other consumer protection agencies in recommending a series of best practices to help prevent data breaches and other exploits.
OTA analyzed preliminary year-end data and estimates that over 740 million records were exposed in 2013, making it the worst year ever recorded in terms of data breaches. Perhaps even more frustrating: OTA examined approximately 500 breaches and determined that 89 percent were avoidable had basic security controls and best practices been enforced.
In the wake of several high-profile national data breaches—most recently Target—OTA and BBB will be hosting a town hall forum in Seattle, Wash., on Feb. 4, 2014, to highlight OTA’s 2014 Data Protection & Breach Readiness Planning Guide and educate businesses and consumers about this disturbing trend that is undermining online trust.
According to the guide, best practices can only be achieved when companies are no longer complacent with meeting minimum compliance standards for data protection. Rather, they must adopt comprehensive data stewardship strategies that safeguard data across the entire lifecycle, from collection to deletion. Also, businesses must be able to quickly assess the nature and scope of incidents, contain them, mitigate the damage and notify all interested parties, including law enforcement and affected customers.
Ultimately, the guide urges all businesses to accept two fundamental premises: One, the consumer data they are collecting invariably contains some form of personally identifiable information. And two, at some point they will inevitably experience data loss. When that happens, it’s best to be prepared.
A public webinar recapping the guide is being hosted on Feb. 12 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. PST. To register, visit bit.ly/1eFddns.