Hackers Will Use Those Database Weaknesses Elsewhere In The Infrastructure
The first foray into your email database may be just the tip of the iceberg for hackers’ future attacks. They could potentially use access into a less sensitive database as a toe-hold to gain access into other more important databases.
Youre Probably Breaking Privacy Policy Promises
You may not be regulated on your privacy policy assurances, but if those sort of things matter to you (or your customers) then be aware that these breaches break your promises to customers.
Your Customers Will Be Barraged With Spam
Hackers will glut your customers’ inboxes with spam if given the keys to your email database – a direct result of your broken privacy guarantees.
Youll Experience Damage to Your Reputation
While the monetary damage to reputation is still highly debatable, the fact is that customers look askance at any type of data breach, be it of their PII or not.
The Bad Guys Can Contact Your Customers
After hackers recently breached the UK-based Primary Care Electronic Library (PCEL) email database, they sent the following messages to those addresses contained within: Dear PCEL user, if you were ever once a patient of ours, we regret to inform you that the Primary Care Electronic Library is closed due to AIDS. Thank you for your attention." And worse.
Youre Putting Your Customers Other Accounts At RiskIndustry surveys have shown that time and time again, people reuse their usernames and passwords. A breach at your site could lead to your customer having their identity stolen elsewhere.
It May Give Hackers Leverage To Break Into Accounts
When hackers gain access to email addresses and passwords without any kind of detection, it won’t take long before they’re using that information to break into accounts in search of other PII that may have been provided on registration.