Last year, the reported number of data breaches affected more than 26 million records. And we're already well ahead of those numbers in 2011 with several highly visible incidents.* The hardest part is knowing that over 95% of breaches could be avoided with the right prevention and mitigation measures in place. At $204 per breached record, U.S. businesses lost $5.3 billion dollars. That's no Austin Powers stat – that's real money that real organizations like yours could have taken to their bottom line but lost to spear phishers instead.

If you think this won't happen to you, think again. If you've got what the spear phishers are looking for (or you have a way for them to access what they want), you're probably already on their hit list. And once they attack, it's too late to do much about it.

Beyond the financial impact (which is horrifying and clearly not a line item on your budget this year), think about the impact on your brand and the trust relationship with your customers.  

Let's put this in terms marketers understand.

If you've got a million record customer database that's compromised, typically, 25% of your customers will be phished. Of those, 40% will never interact with your brand again because they'll be so upset by incident. Let's just say your average customer's lifetime value is $400 (could be more or less, just adjust the math for your scenario), the lost customer portfolio value is $40 MILLION DOLLARS.**

Is that a hit you're willing to take?

Learn how to safeguard your brand, data assets and customer relationships. In this webinar we will discuss:

• The nature of the threat facing the email industry, and how spear phishers gain access, exploit our relationships and hijack our data and systems.

• Principles for architecting a safe and secure messaging environment and reducing your points of vulnerability.

• Why both protection and mitigation must be part of your security strategy, and how a multi-layered approach, real time intelligence sharing, and user feedback fit in.

• Ways to prepare yourself to respond, immediately and effectively, if and when your defenses are breached.

• Best business practices recommended by a panel of experts

*Industry experts estimate that 20-30 ESPs  have been compromised to date in 2011, though far fewer have been reported in the industry press. The same is true for data breaches at enterprises. Source: Krebsonsecurity.com, "Epsilon Breach Raises Specter of Spear Phishing".
** Based on Reputation Impact of a Data Breach Executive Summary, Ponemon Institute© Research Report, Sponsored by Experian® Data Breach Resolution, Independently conducted by Ponemon Institute LLC, Publication Date: October 2011

For more information on Data Security, download a copy of Message Systems whitepaper, Safeguarding Message Streams for Enterprise and Email Service Providers.

For more information on Message Convergence, what it is and how to prepare for it, download a copy of Message Systems whitepaper, Preparing for Message Convergence.