Companies Change Terms and Conditions As Data Breaches Become More Common

A vicious cyber-attack against the electronic toys maker VTech has resulted in more than 6.3 million children becoming vulnerable online. The hackers gained access to both photos and chat logs.

VTech has responded to the nightmare by updating its End User License Agreement, adding the caveat that the company cannot provide 100% guarantee that it wont be hacked again.

The toy maker also shifted some responsibility onto the parents. “You acknowledge and agree that any information you send or receive during your use of the site may not be secure and may be intercepted or later acquired by unauthorized parties,” the company said in a statement.

Commenting on the move, security expert Jonathan Lierberman, the VP of Product Strategy at Lieberman Software, commented that it was only a matter of time before every online business has Terms and Conditions that limit their liability in cases of cybercrime.

Indeed, online crime and data breaches pose a mounting problem. According to 24/7 Wall Street, the latest count from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) shows that there has been a total of 69 data breaches recorded through Feb. 9, 2016, and almost 1.4 million records have been exposed since the beginning of this year.

The largest data breach involved medical information on 950,000 subscribers to a company’s health insurance products. The data, stored on six hard drives, is still unaccounted for.

Data breaches pose serious problems for businesses that store crucial and private information in the cloud or online — and not just as serious liabilities. They are a serious internal risk, as almost 35% of all data breaches can be traced back to current employees.

The government and military sector has suffered about five data breaches this year, while the medical sector has suffered the largest percentage, at 34.8%. The educational sector has seen 10 data breaches so far in 2016.

At this rate, online businesses will be scrambling to protect their customers — and themselves against their customers in the event of loss of information.