Roulston Technology Partner on Fallout from Recent Data Breaches

Roulston Technology Partner Bart Perkins recently wrote a blog posting about the recent high-profile data breaches to consumers personal data. Cybercrime has been in the headlines recently with the Sony PlayStation Network compromising 77 million user’s personal data, email marketer Epsilon exposing consumer data from fortune five-hundred companies such as Citibank and Disney, and Vodafone Australia making millions of customers names, addresses, and credit card information freely available. Bart explains how most people consider data security to be an IT problem but a breach comes with tremendous direct costs which averaged 7.2 million dollars in 2010, or $214 per compromised consumer record. Direct costs include hiring extra staff to help control the breach, external legal counsel, and credit monitoring services for victims whose personal data was compromised.

Bart states, “Although frequently overlooked, indirect costs of breaches are often higher than direct costs.” He mentions that the primary indirect costs are:

1. Staff
2. Public Relations
3. Finger-pointing
4. Government Inquiries
5. Political Attacks
6. Customer Inconvenience

To read Bart’s full article and see how these six issues affect companies that have data breaches follow the link to Computerworld’s website at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/356892/Data_Breaches_Costly_Fallout


Bart Perkins has over 25 years experience leading IT efforts for major corporations and consulting firms. Former CIO of YUM! Brands and Dole Food Company, Bart developed technology supplier management systems to reduce risk, improve service levels and lower costs. Bart has been a Partner at KPMG Peat Marwick (Nolan, Norton & Co.), a Vice President at Technology Solutions Company, and co-founder of The Value Sourcing Group, an IT vendor management consulting firm. His consulting engagements span a wide range of industries. Bart's clients include Marriott, Blockbuster, Thermo-Fisher Scientific, Diageo, General Foods, Kraft, Nabisco, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, PepsiCo, NCR, Thomson Reuters, Barilla, Boeing, Aetna, Georgia Pacific, and Heineken. Bart writes a monthly column on IT Management for Computerworld and is a judge for CIO Magazine's CIO 100.