PGP INSIGHT

Press Release: Lost Customer Information Surveys Results
LOST CUSTOMER INFORMATION: SURVEYS REVEAL CONSUMER REVOLT AND $14 MILLION AVERAGE CORPORATE COSTS TO CONTAIN BRAND DAMAGE
Results Distributed by PGP Corporation Show Substantial Impact from Consumer Data Breaches Involving 1.4 Million Compromised Records and $200 Million in Costs
Palo Alto, CA/14 November, 2005 - Two new surveys find customers are actively punishing companies that lose their confidential and private information. Conducted by The Ponemon Institute© and distributed by PGP Corporation, the surveys find that almost 20 percent of customers immediately terminated their accounts with vendors that lost their information, and an additional 40 percent considered termination. Companies participating in a parallel study estimated incurring an average cost of $14 million per breach incident, with costs ranging as high as $50 million. Reports are available from PGP Corporation at www.pgp.com/ponemon.
The survey - "Lost Customer Information: What Does a Data Breach Cost Companies?" - is the first of its kind to report data from actual cases of lost customer information and the associated costs incurred to recover. Covering 14 separate incidents, it represents 1.4 million compromised data records and almost $200 million in total costs. Total cost estimates include the actual cost of internal investigations, outside legal defense fees, notification and call center costs, PR and investor relations efforts, discounted services offered, lost employee productivity, and the effect of lost customers.
The related survey - "National Survey on Data Security Breach Notification" - reports results from 9,000 consumers, 12 percent of whom had received notifications of information mishandling. When extrapolated to the U.S. population, an estimated 23 million consumers have received such notices. Results showed 60 percent had terminated or were considering terminating their accounts.
"The increasing incidence of reporting of lost private personal records poses a serious threat to consumer confidence - and to vendor profits," said Esther Dyson, editor of Release 1.0 for CNET Networks and a member of the PGP Business Advisory Board. "Yet it is the right thing to do because it is forcing companies to clean up their acts. Companies are beginning to understand the effect carelessness with data can have on their reputations and their bottom line."
Report Findings
Top-level corporate survey findings:
- Average additional spending resulting from a single data breach was $5 million
- Reported costs ranged as high as $50 million for an insurance company
- Average total recovery costs were $140 per lost customer record
- Average loss was 2.5 percent of all customers, ranging as high as 11 percent
Top-level consumer survey findings:
- Nearly 12 percent of consumers received a breach notification in the last year
- This figure suggests an estimated 23 million adults have received such notifications
- Almost 20 percent immediately terminated their accounts
- An additional 40 percent are considering account termination
"Great companies know that customer acquisition and retention are the life-blood of long-term corporate success," said Andrew Krcik, vice president of marketing for PGP Corporation. "A brand reputation built with hundreds of millions of dollars over decades can be destroyed by careless handling of private customer information. When the lifetime value of customers is so high and new customer acquisition so difficult, why destroy customer confidence when practical safeguards are available to prevent such an event?"
Regulatory Requirements
Corporations no longer have the option of hoping customers
will not find out about mishandled information. Currently, 21 U.S.
states have laws requiring that customers or employees be notified
when protected personal information has been breached. Specific
requirements vary by state, but this notification requirement is
often waived if lost data was protected using encryption
technologies. Notification legislation is also under consideration
at the federal level.
"In my interviews with Chief Security Officers, encryption is by far the most commonly cited mitigation strategy for breach notification legislation," said Jim Reavis, president of Reavis Consulting Group and editor of the CSOinformer newsletter. "The idea is simple: If you have a mobile device, database, or desktop computer protected with encryption from a proven vendor like PGP Corporation, companies and law enforcement have confidence that personal data on those systems is not subject to compromise."
PGP Solutions
PGP Corporation has developed the PGP Universal
encryption platform to protect organizations from data breaches,
regulatory notification requirements, and resulting costs. It
allows IT organizations to provide data security to all internal
departments and external partners that handle confidential
information. Its proxy-based architecture allows for central
management, with automatic operation, email infrastructure
transparency, and elimination of laptop/desktop, gateway/server,
and mobile/wireless encryption silos. It helps entities meet their
business unit requirements for customer privacy, competitive
protection, supply chain integrity, and "brand
insurance" against public breaches - without disrupting
users.
Once deployed, the PGP Universal platform is capable of provisioning 10 encryption applications in a combination of gateway and end-point locations. This "deploy-once, enable over time" approach allows organizations to address their greatest risks today and grow into a comprehensive security solution over time. Current PGP encryption suite applications include disk encryption, email encryption, digital signatures, secure data deletion, instant messaging encryption, Self-Decrypting Archives (SDAs), batch process/FTP encryption, secure tape/archive encryption, encrypted email delivery to all recipients, and an encryption Software Development Kit (SDK) for customized, internal applications .
About PGP Corporation
The global customer standard for encryption and
digital-signature solutions, PGP Corporation develops, markets, and
supports an integrated data security suite used by more than 30,000
enterprises, businesses, and governments worldwide, including 84
percent of the Fortune® 100, 66 percent of the
Fortune® Global 100, and thousands of individuals and
cryptography experts. During the past 10 years, PGP®
technology has earned a global reputation for innovative,
standards-based, trusted solutions. Contact PGP Corporation at
www.pgp.com or +1 650 319 9000.
Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements in this press release are
forward-looking, including statements regarding the availability,
plans, delivery, goals, development, expected features, expected
benefits and competitive position of PGP products implementing or
leveraging the PGP technologies. All references made to product
feature enhancements, improvements in platform support or
additional functionality are subject to change at solely PGP
Corporation's discretion. All future descriptions of PGP
technology and products are subject to availability only if PGP
Corporation decides to build them and when PGP Corporation decides
to make them commercially available. Actual results could differ
materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties that PGP Corporation faces that could cause
results to differ materially include risks associated with any
unforeseen technical difficulties or software errors related to the
final development and launch of any of PGP Corporation's
products; any technological or standards changes in the security,
encryption and authentications market which could make PGP
Corporation's products less competitive or require feature
changes in these products; any slowdown in the adoption by
businesses of encryption suites, secure email, Internet
technologies or related standard. The forward-looking statements
contained in this release are made as of the date hereof, and PGP
Corporation does not assume any obligation to update such
statements nor the reasons why actual results could differ
materially from those projected in such statements.
PGP and the PGP logo are registered trademarks of PGP Corporation. Product and brand names used in the document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Any such trademarks or registered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.
North America
Christina Grenier
PGP Corporation
+1 650 543 3697
cgrenier@pgp.com
Tom Rice
Merritt Group
+1 703 856 2218
rice@merrittgrp.com
Germany
Ingrid Daschner
Johnson King
+49 (0) 89 8940 8511
ingridd@johnsonking.de
Japan
Kyosuke Wakairo
Powered Communications Inc.
+81 3 5211 7899
pgp@powered-communications.com
United Kingdom
Jacqui Depares
Johnson King
+44 (0)20 7401 7968
jacquid@johnsonking.co.uk