How companies can regain consumer trust after a data breach

Americans have strong feelings about data breach notification, with 84 percent stating that the best way a company can regain their trust after a breach occurs is to notify them right away and provide a high level of contact.

Qualtrics surveyed more than 500 individuals between the ages of 18-75, and found that 92 percent of respondents think a company should be required to report a data breach to their entire customer base, regardless of breach size.

While the majority of respondents agree on notification, they are divided on what steps should be taken to protect themselves and placing trust in retailers.

49 percent of respondents said they have not changed their shopping habits in light of the massive retail breaches over the past two years, and 60 percent trust retailers to protect their credit and debit card information.

Additional findings include:

• 70 percent of respondents claim they keep up-to-date with news about data breaches, while only 51 percent consider themselves knowledgeable on the topic of data breaches and cyber security
• Of those respondents whose information was not breached, 37 percent have changed shopping habits due to news of breaches
• 48 percent of respondents continue to shop at stores that have experienced a breach because they believe all businesses are vulnerable to data breaches
• 48 percent of respondents believe that outside of the attacker, an organization’s IT team/developers should be held responsible for a data breach.