May 26, 2006
VA Data May Cost $500 million to Clean Up
If you haven’t been under a rock, you’ve heard about the theft of the personal data of 25 million Americans from the home of a Veteran’s Administration employee. Some are now estimating up to $500 million to clean it up.
Some Perspective on $500 Million:
- That’s only $20 per person whose data was stolen.
- That equals more than 1/3 of their entire IT budget
- But it’s only about 1/2 of 1% of their entire 2006 Budget
- It’s estimated to be the amount all Phishing scams cost consumers in 2004.
Use this case as a wake-up call to your company. How much would it cost to notify all your customers that their data was lost or stolen? Figure out that number and you can justify a lot of projects.
VA data theft may cost $500 million [zdnet/reuters]
