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Research indicates that almost half of security experts are instructed to keep data breaches confidential. A survey of 400 IT and security professionals conducted by Bitdefender revealed that 42% of respondents had been asked to keep a breach confidential, even if they knew it had to be reported. Additionally, 30% admitted to deliberately avoiding making a breach public, despite having specific processes in place for doing so.
The research comes at a time when cyber threats are at an all-time high.
US security professionals are more likely to keep breaches secret
The study found that US-based security professionals were the most likely to conceal a breach when they knew it should have been made public. 71% of US respondents failed to alert senior management or customers to a breach.
In contrast, staff based in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy were the least likely to withhold a breach report.
Failing to report data breaches can pose a significant risk to organizations in both the European Union and the United States. Companies in both regions are legally obligated to disclose an incident when customer data has been exposed.
For instance, EU-based organizations are required to notify a supervisory authority “without undue delay” and at the latest “within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach”. In January, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hinted at a possible revision of legislation that would reduce the time telecom companies have to report data security breaches.
Tip: Employees should avoid saving business data on personal devices too often.