14 DAY TRIAL // You've probably heard about security breaches and data being stolen a thousand times on the news. This is not something new and people don't seem to be very affected by this, probably because it's not a direct threat. If your data gets stolen, nothing bad actually happens, it needs to be used in a certain way for actual damage to be done. And in any case, if you change one number in your data, the old, stolen info is useless.
Now, I'm not just saying this because it came to me in a dream, there are studies that show it, for example, the 2007 Data Breach vs. Brand Equity Consumer Survey . Out of all the people that had taken part in this study, less than a quarter said that they had stopped shopping at locales where confidential records had been stolen, as NetworkWorld informs. So it seems that even if data breaches are affecting a firm's image, it doesn't affect customers too much. Just think about what happened to TJX - due to flaws they had in their security systems they leaked data of many many customers, yet they lost but a few.
According to the same survey, most people (90%) think that it's important to keep their personal info well protected. And frankly, I couldn't agree with them more. Also, a huge part (80%) thinks that companies that suffer data breaches lose credibility. Sure, their image is tarnished, but they don't actually seem to lose customers - I don't know why that is, but I guess that people don't take these things too seriously; it's either that or the fact that they are being loyal to a certain brand. Sometimes, when a company offers really good services, people don't give a damn about data loss anymore...