"Regardless of your size, if you are a business that handles personal information then data protection laws apply to you. If a company is subject to a cyber attack and we find they haven't taken steps to protect people's personal information in line with the law, they could face a fine from the ICO. And under the new General Data Protection Legislation (GDPR) coming into force next year, those fines could be a lot higher."
Suffering a data breach has the potential to seriously damage the reputation of a business. Bad press, word of mouth, and negative social media interactions can turn existing and new customers away.
Insufficient site or server security through secure hosting can cause your customers to abandon ship. In a Centrify survey 31% of consumers said they discontinued their relationship with a company following a data breach that resulted in the loss of personal information.
If you suffer a data breach you have a responsibility to inform your customers and depending on the seriousness of the breach, the Information Commissioner's Office too. Effectively planning the communication of a breach is a very time-consuming task that can significantly cut into valuable productive time.
The arrival of ICO and GDPR regulations introduced the potential for business-crippling fines. Penalties of as much as 4% of a company's turnover can be levied against a business in the event of a data breach. Equally devastating are compensation pay outs to individuals directly affected by the breach, and the legal costs associated with subsequent law suits.
Storm's Security Centre simplifies secure hosting with an intuitive interface that analyses your site or server security, and highlights areas in need of attention. Enabling security add-ons for enhanced online security is easy, whatever your level of technical expertise. Use the native reporting tools for an in-depth view of traffic volumes and sources, or to simplify GDPR and ICO compliance in a couple of clicks.
Shift the responsibility of your hosting security to Storm. With fully-managed monitoring we'll run quarterly scans of your sites and servers that you have added to the Storm Security Centre. If we spot any issues, we will advise you and carry out any change necessary. Enabling add-ons for enhanced online security is easy too, whatever your level of technical expertise. Use the reporting tools for an in-depth view of traffic volumes and sources, or to simplify GDPR and ICO compliance in a couple of clicks.
Even with the best security in place, data breaches can and do still happen. Should that occur, your business needs to be able to show it has done everything possible to prevent them, eliminating loss of trust from clients, as well as reputational damage. You wouldn't go out without securing your house, so securing your online business is your insurance policy. The Storm Security Centre's audit trail feature provides a comprehensive record of your site and server security. Use the downloadable reports to solidify client trust, or, in the event of a data breach, to provide proof that all necessary precautions have been taken to secure sensitive data and site information to PCI standards.
At Storm we're all about going the distance, and then some. With secure hosting more effective and more accessible through the Storm Security Centre, you're always just a few clicks away from stronger, better, more resilient online security. As such, if your site or server passed all security benchmarks in the Storm Security Centre at the time of a severe data breach, we'll: