But any data breach can leave you at risk of identity theft if the hackers want to use that information against you. Its hard to forget the far-reaching Equifax blunder that exposed Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses, tax ID numbers, and drivers license information of potentially 148 million people.
Protecting this type of data is vital as the impact of it being leaked can easily lead to revenue loss, reputational damage, operational disruption, and regulatory sanction, just to name a few.
What are the possible consequences for breaching the Privacy Act?
Depending on the type of breach, the fine can range from $525,000 to $2.1 million for a body corporate and from $105,000 to $420,000 for any other entity[iv].
What are the consequences of data privacy breach?
The long-term consequences: Loss of trust and diminished reputation. Perhaps the biggest long-term consequence of a data breach is the loss of customer trust. Your customers share their sensitive information with businesses like yours assuming that youll have the proper security measures in place to protect their data
Who is liable if the data is hacked?
In a cloud environment, under U.S. law (except HIPAA which places direct liability on a data holder), and standard contact terms, it is the data owner that faces liablity for losses resulting from a data breach, even if the security failures are the fault of the data holder (cloud provider).