And repairing broken trust can be the hardest. Don’t you agree? Ask the makers of Family Locator - a family tracking app - struggling to win back the confidence of customers after it was reported that the app was subject to a data breach. The app leaked the real-time location data of its users due to a lack of encryption. As a result, the app, which purported to ensure personal safety, quite ironically put its customers at risk, albeit for a limited period.

Although no business intends to leave their data open to leakage and unauthorized access, most small and medium enterprises often fail to recognize the compelling need for a standardized yet flexible data loss prevention system. I’ve noticed this general pattern consistently among numerous SME organizations, who are initially skeptical about the need for data loss prevention solutions. They often see the deployment of such security systems as an exercise that brings with it excessive costs and complexities. They believe that using data leak prevention mechanisms would slow down their operations by limiting data access for their employees. And thus, they often fail to implement any data security measures, until they are hit by a data breach that threatens their reputation and damages customer trust, threatening their sustainability.

While the impact made by data breaches is hard to reverse and repair, it is much easier to prevent data breaches before they happen. In fact, over 90% of data breaches that happen are preventable. This means most data breaches can be avoided by the businesses but aren’t, due to a lack of awareness. To prevent such data breaches, business owners should invest in deploying context-sensitive data leak prevention technologies that can ensure that your customer’s information is safe from misuse yet easily accessible to those within the organization who need it.