Firms must put in place sufficient cybersecurity measures

WITH increasing access to mobile devices and the Internet, the amount of data created annually worldwide is predicted to soar to 180 zettabytes (180 trillion gigabytes) in 2025, with some 80 billion devices connected to the Internet.

As organisations look towards data to track consumer patterns and guide business direction, they should also be mindful of the legal regulations that govern the protection of data and the possibility of a data breach. In the past year, we have seen some of the largest data breaches in history with millions of accounts compromised and the release of personal data such as addresses and telephone numbers for sale on the black market.

Such high-profile data breaches have been increasing in size and prevalence in recent years, with cyber criminals (and even state actors) taking keen interest in obtaining sensitive corporate and personal information. Besides such hacking attacks, a data breach can also arise from employee mischief or neglect, an inadvertent leak, lack of or failure in security measures, just to name a few.