My 2005 research into stock prices and reputational risk was removed from attrition.org after about 1.5 years. There could be a few reasons for it: 1. it was getting outdated; 2. my analysis wasn’t scientific enough for them; 3. the paper was actually right and the impact of security breaches are much less than anticipated (hence, data contradictory to their viewpoint); 4. any combination of 1-3.
It’s good to see these same conclusions being discussed over at ncircle.com. Tim reasons,
Using stock price as an indicator, one can conclude that either the brand damage isn’t very significant or these four companies worked very hard at recovery. Clearly, I can’t measure the direct increase in money spent on brand recovery by each of these organizations, but also clear is that none of them were irreparably damaged by their respective incidents.
While I would be great (though difficult) to say there is a direct influence from my research, I can say thanks for spreading the word: it’s tough being the lone voice of this perspective!
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Kenneth,
Thanks for your work and contribution to the Dataloss page. We removed a few other supporting links as well mainly to help with page formatting and make room for a couple of new links. Nevertheless, we found the study interesting and hope others do as well!
Thanks again,
Lyger (attrition.org)
Lyger,
Thanks for the post. It’s much appreciated.
I’m really glad that someone is keeping track of these breaches! The breach data is quite moving, but, unfortunately, not surprising…
What is your basis for the assertion that Attrition believes that breaches do depress stock prices?
Hey Chris,
Back in 2005, it was not common belief that most security breaches do not materially affect the stock price.
My paper was seen as the contrarian perspective which was not well received (in my opinion).
Thankfully, the truth bared on my side (since the data at that time was scarce).
I appreciate the comment and hope this clarified my statement and your concern.
Ken