It seems as
though breaching customers’ privacy is becoming more and more common for
companies. I was just one of the many Target customers who had credit card
information hacked between November and December of 2013. It is now being
reported that over 110 million cards were affected by the breach in security.
Information including card number, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, names and
address were accessed during the process and could now be affecting one-third of the United States population.
The entire situation
poorly affected Target’s well-known and respected reputation that it had with
its customers and the United States population. After the breach in privacy,
many loyal Target shoppers were forced to go elsewhere for shopping wants and
needs, without worry of having their information accessed. A store that was
once positioned highly in the mind of the consumer has now sunk to the bottom
because of a security violation that could have been completely avoided.
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| Picture retrieved from Target |
But are companies
now planning for attacks on security to better their reputation?
 |
| Picture retrieved from Media Bistro |
According to a
recent report by The
Economist, that
is exactly what happening. Some companies are viewing breaches in privacy as an
unavoidable incident that is bound to happen at some point in the future
anyway, instead of trying to do everything it can to prevent it from happening
and saving the company and its customers future harm.
The majority of
business have recently put in to effect a security plan, to be better prepared
just incase something does go wrong. Although it does seem like a smart idea to
have a back-up plan for security violations, companies are relying solely on it
instead of other planning.
An article of the
report on PR Newser expressed that company executives
believed these plans would help to improve the reputation if a breach in
security were to disrupt the company.
According to the
article:
- Two thirds of execs think that effective responses to such incidents can improve their corporate reputations
- 60% of orgs polled now have formal response strategies in place
- Yet, while 73% of orgs feel “somewhat prepared“, only 17% of business leaders surveyed feel “fully prepared” to address breaches
From a public
relation standpoint, it seems in the best interest of the company and its
stakeholders to protect them at all cost. A plan to protect both interests
should be in tact and set by company executives.
According to the
article, though, hackers are not responsible for the majority of violations in
security. Twenty-nine percent are due to system outages and 27 percent because
of loss of data. So maybe if hackers aren’t the main issue, the company should
pay more attention on being responsible with its information and making sure it
is safely backed up incase of system outage or power failure.
Planning for
emergencies and breaches in security or privacy is a good idea, but the
reputation won’t need to be managed if the company remains responsible and
smart with its information and customers.
Sources:
Reisinger,
D. (2014, January 10). Yikes! Target's data breach now could affect 110M
people. In CNet. Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57617034-83/yikes-targets-data-breach-now-could-affect-110m-people/
Coffee,
P. (2014, March 21). More Companies Now Plan to Use Cyberattacks to Enhance
Their Reputations. In PR Newser. Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/more-companies-now-plan-to-use-cyberattacks-to-enhance-their-reputations_b88419
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