It's The Customer Confidence, Stupid!

Sometimes I wonder about the value of surveys. Yes, some of them are very useful (we've been known to utilize a couple ourselves), but often I find myself scratching my head at the results of some random poll thinking, "Well, duh."

Case in point, a recent survey in the U.K. polled more than 2,000 British consumers to determine if their trust in a company would be affected by data loss -- through theft, leakage, error, etc. Some 91% of those surveyed said they would prefer to do business with a company that had never had a data breach, rather than doing transactions with one that had.

Wow, I'm stunned. I would have thought that more people would love to gamble with their private information than that (I trust you're being mindful of the dripping sarcasm). And what about that leftover 9%? Was it comprised of mountain climbers, bungee jumpers, big game hunters, and other daredevils unafraid of a little data security risk?

And 75% of those polled went on to say they wouldn't trust a company they knew had experienced a data breach, and 79% said they would warn friends and family from doing any business with that company as well.

Really, does this come as a surprise to anyone? This isn't rocket science, folks, this is simple logic (or at least it should be): Lose the data, lose the trust, lose the customers -- and if you're not careful, the business.So why the holdup in implementing security measures and data loss/protection policies? Is it a matter of "oh, it will never happen here in our org..." or "Our company is too small to be the target of data theft..." or the most likely "Well, if we can fit it into our budget... ."

Here's a tip -- crooks don't care. They'll go after anything they can. Car thieves steal brand new cars as easily as beat-up old clunkers for the parts. If a hacker can get something out of your system, it doesn't matter if you're Barnes & Noble or Bob's bargain books. And everyone, from CEOs to salespeople, leaves desktops and laptops unattended and ripe for the picking.

Bottom line, you can't afford NOT to implement security measures. It pays off in the long run and saves you the embarrassment of becoming a statistic in another one of those surveys with painfully obvious results.