Data breaches are no longer just a cybersecurity issue, but also a business operations issue. Every employee should be aware of and prepared to participate in a robust data breach response plan because a data breach creates havoc well beyond the initial intrusion.

More data is available than ever before, so while there may be fewer data breaches, the amount of data at risk of compromise is greater than ever before. Over 27 billion records were exposed in the first six months of 2020, more than double the 12 billion exposed during all of 2019. The vast majority of these exposed records came from three data breaches, which were all the result of misconfigured databases and services. But even if you set those large events aside, the average number of records exposed per breach is increasing.