Infographics are always interesting and intriguing. They are interesting for what they include and for what they exclude. In this regard, the “IT Security” is especially intriguing.
Sony is shown for losing over a tenth-of-a-billion records due to IT security breaches. Sony, of course, was in the news very recently for its hack–purportedly by North Korea–which forced it to shelve the release of the Seth Rogen-starrer The Interview and causing it to lose untold millions of dollars. If it had lost a great many records prior to 2011, one would think that they would have learned from that episode.
The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department apparently lost almost an equal amount of records. The VA is in the news constantly for all the wrong reasons–most often for its deplorable state of treating veterans from various wars. The fact that they lost 76 million records does nothing to minimize the damage.
This infographic is intriguing for what it has omitted, as well. It does report the harmful results of such security breaches such as lost time in work, lost new business, loss of consumer confidence and very many others. Someone did report the results of a study of the financial costs of adhering to all of the government rules, regulations procedures and policies that are imposed on businesses of all types. It was found that businesses spend almost two trillion dollars a year in this unproductive activity.
It would have been nice if this infographic also reported the costs associated with security breaches.
Likes: Although not quite complete, the Outcomes section is a nice reminder.
Dislikes: The first section focuses on the average cost, but does not state the total cost.
Infographic by Dell.com