Breach Blindness: The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Data Breaches

I'm signed up for data breach alerts, so I get emails whenever my information has been exposed due to a hack or leak. Over the last few years, I’ve received these dreaded emails almost monthly, and occasionally, I've even been alerted to multiple breaches in the same week.

These aren't isolated incidents targeting just me—data breaches have become a constant in the news cycle. It feels like every other week, there's another headline about a breach exposing credit card info, passwords, social security numbers, etc. These leaks happen so often that most of us just scroll past without a second thought.

Most breaches aren’t random attacks; they’re financially motivated—95 percent of the time, in fact. It’s easy to assume you’ll be the exception or think, “They’ll fix it before it affects me.” But the stats are eye-opening. According to Varonis, in 2024, it took an average of 194 days to identify a data breach. Think about that—half a year before companies even realize they’ve been compromised.

When constant breaches feel like part of the internet experience, we become desensitized, a phenomenon dubbed breach blindness. We get so used to these stories that they start to feel abstract unless they directly impact our own lives. This apathy has had me wondering, “Well, shoot. But what am I supposed to do?”

Ignoring these breaches is risky. When companies don’t prioritize security, it's like an open invitation to steal our data. And the cost hits all of us, from stolen identities to rising prices as businesses absorb their losses. According to IBM, the global average cost of data breaches this year is nearly $5 million! And if you can believe it, that marks a 10 percent increase over last year.

This is a serious issue. The next time you hear about a data breach, don’t just scroll past. It’s actually a big deal. The less attention we pay, the more we send the message that it’s okay to leave our data vulnerable. No one wants their sensitive information treated as disposable content. These breaches erode our privacy and control, and things will only get worse if we don’t pay attention.

Companies need to do more to safeguard our data. But what can you do about it? Well, as a user, our best advice is to use unique passwords for all your accounts. And always pick a strong, hard-to-guess password, because the majority of breaches are due to weak, repeated passwords.