2019 is the year we discover the true cost of poor data protection

Data breaches affected more than one billion people in 2018, and that number is only set to increase as hackers continue to develop new and innovative ways of carrying out cyber theft.

As we near the first anniversary of its introduction, 2019 has already become the year in which the first serious GDPR-related fine was handed out. The £50 million penalty meted out to Google this month by French regulator CNIL is no doubt a sign of things to come.

As such, data – how it is stored, analysed and applied – will be a key theme for 2019, so understanding what is most valuable to criminals, and prioritising protection accordingly will only become more important. Key to prioritising which areas of your business you protect, is understanding how hackers monetise data.

1. Data heist

By stealing huge quantities of data, hackers can sell large packages of information very quickly to the highest bidder. Those who buy their cyber-loot will then unpick the package and use it in different ways, often alongside other stolen information, to build sophisticated frauds. But because thefts of large amounts of data at once are often quickly identified, the shelf-life of the stolen information is very short – often just a few days.

As well as making it as difficult as poss