Evolving global cyber-threats can impact UK consumers, regardless of age, gender or financial status. Developing an efficient and effective response strategy is critical where a cyberattack has accessed personal information. By taking a proactive approach with credit monitoring, organisations can help mitigate the financial impact on consumers, minimise reputational damage to their brand and reduce the cost of fines or penalties.
Acting as a personal assistant and watchdog, a credit monitoring service alerts consumers to any potentially fraudulent credit related activity and identity theft including loan applications, new bank accounts or store cards to provide peace of mind.
TransUnion research in 2021 reported 16% of UK consumers saying data breaches and identity theft had impacted how they think about their credit or personal data. We also found three in ten businesses that suffered a data breach say it damaged their reputation, while a further 19% said they lost customers as a direct result.
In addition, the mandatory reporting of data breaches and substantial increases in public awareness around data protection means rolling out credit monitoring could help build and retain customer loyalty.
Prior to May 25th, 2018, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) could issue a maximum fine of £500,000. Since then, failing to notify them of a data breach can cost up to £8.7 million or 2% of global annual turnover. When combined with other corrective powers, penalties can reach 4% of global annual turnover or around £17m, whichever is higher. In recent years we’ve seen such fines levied against British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy and Clearview AI.
There is growing evidence that credit monitoring will be a mitigating factor in ICO investigations and may help reduce financial penalties.
In the ICO’s judgement against an insurance provider in 2015 and a credit reference agency in 2018, offering free credit monitoring services to affected consumers helped contain the potentially harmful consequences of the breaches. More recently, BA’s offer to provide free credit monitoring contributed to the ICO's decision to reduce a fine of £163 million to £20m.
TrueIdentity provides the resources, expertise, and service to help minimise the risks associated with a breach — including dark web monitoring and support to individuals affected. With response speed key to managing and mitigating the impacts, our Data Breach Support Service support program is fully operational within 48 hours.
To learn more about our Data Breach Support Service, or if you recently suffered a breach and require support, please email mark.read@transunion.com or visit https://www.transunion.co.uk/solution/data-breach-support-service
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