Global Cybersecurity Company BlackFog just released their 2024 State of Ransomware Annual Report and things aren’t looking so good.
As Techrepublic reported, “Data theft accounted for 94% of all cyber attacks worldwide in 2024” and “...the number of disclosed and undisclosed cyber attacks increased by 25% and 26% year-over-year, respectively.”
Modern marketing depends on data. But as always, greed feeds on needs. What makes information like purchase histories, browsing behavior, and demographic data so valuable to marketers also makes it highly enticing to cybercriminals.
Data breaches don’t just risk leaking sensitive customer information. They can also cost companies millions. According to IBM’s Cost of Data Breach report, the global average cost of a data breach was $4.88M in 2024 - the highest yet and it’s only going to go up. The California Privacy Rights Act (CPPA), which was the first dedicated privacy regulator in the United States, just raised its fines for non-compliance, starting January 1, 2025.
Prioritizing cybersecurity should now be a key focus for marketing professionals. We take this very, very seriously at Probability. We have a top-of-the-line security program in place and our dedicated security team oversees all aspects of data protection; including fraud prevention, detection, encryption, and safe-guarding.
We use specialized software including Suricata and Fail2Ban (intrusion detection and prevention), CloudFlare (denial of service protection), Netdata, Grafana, and Wazuh (Server and network health monitoring), and others. We follow a comprehensive set of 23 data governance policies including Data Security, Disaster Recovery Planning, Acceptable Use, Artificial Intelligence Security and Compliance, Server Security, Antivirus and Malware, Identity and Access Management, and numerous others.
For decades now, marketers have been collecting and using data to personalize customer experiences. These efforts have made it more efficient than ever to guide consumers toward products and services they’ll love. But with all the progress made, the risk to data has also increased.
The cost of inaction is far worse than the time and investment required to implement robust cybersecurity. Some of the most notable companies in the world have been hit with massive fines in recent years: Google - $93 million, Uber - $148 million, Wells Fargo - $8.5 million, Equifax - $600 million, just to name a few.
All brands must strengthen their defenses today to safeguard their customers’ data as well as the bottom line. We owe it to consumers to maintain airtight data protection. It’s the challenge of our time, but one that companies can meet by adopting proactive cybersecurity measures and staying committed to customer privacy.
