Public want instant data loss notice

Businesses may be bracing themselves for tougher EU data breach notification rules but UK consumers have already made up their minds: forget 24 hours, nearly half reckon companies should be able to warn them within minutes of an attack.
That is one of a number of worrying findings of a new report conducted by independent research firm TNS on behalf of Bit9 + Carbon Black. It quizzed more than 2,000 UK consumers about recent data breaches and discovered most are decidedly unhappy with the current situation.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of consumers say the time it is taking businesses to realise that sensitive customer data has been lost is ‘unacceptable’, while over four in five (81%) actually fear cybercriminals could already have stolen their personal details without anyone realising.
As a result, consumers are calling for harsher penalties for businesses that could have detected or prevented a breach if they had more effective security measures in place.
More than 80% believe they should be compensated in such an event, while 59% say a fine should be levied on the organisation – a far cry from Information Commissioner Christopher Graham’s plan to “only spank the bad boys”.
In fact, 7% of those surveyed want to see someone taking the blame for a data breach and going to prison.
Almost all (94%) believe companies should know, within 24 hours, if their data had been stolen, and 47% think that should be narrowed to a matter of minutes; nearly two-thirds (63%) want 24-hour surveillance of data.