Data records stolen, consumer distrust soars

There have been 375 million known data records stolen or lost in the world after the first six months of 2014, which is more than 200 million more than during the same period a year ago, according to SafeNet.

The information security company additionally reports results of a global survey indicating adults are less likely to shop or do business with a company that had experienced a data breach exposing financial data.

SafeNet said 65 percent of more than 4,500 adults surveyed in the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Australia would never or were very unlikely to revisit a company after it a breach of financial data. Fifty-seven percent said they’d stay away following a breach of personal identifiable information.

“Data breaches are not just breaches of security. They are also breaches of trust between companies and their customers, and can result in not only negative publicity but lost business, lawsuits, and fines that can threaten the viability of the business,” said Tsion Gonen, SafeNet’s chief strategy officer, in a statement. “For organizations that fail to address their security vulnerabilities, the problem is only going to get worse as stricter regulations governing the reporting of data breaches are introduced across the world, making breaches more visible to the public. So companies need to do all that they can to keep customer data protected.”

SafeNet said half of adults feel companies take customer data security seriously.

More than 175.6 million records were stolen during the 2014 second quarter. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter with at least 100 million records compromised, according to SafeNet.