An analysis of the public consequences of cybersecurity incidents in Brazil

Cybersecurity incidents, like data breaches and ransomware, are on the rise, and their consequences can affect companies from different perspectives. On the one hand, a well-known consequence involves the technical aspects of ensuring the continuity of companies’ operations. On the other hand, cybersecurity incidents’ repercussions can impact companies’ stock market value and negatively influence customers’ perceptions about companies’ reputations. Currently, social media platforms establish an additional concern for companies because of their capability to intensify incident reactions. This study analyzed tweets, news, and stock prices associated with four Brazilian organizations’ victims of data breaches and ransomware to answer the research question: what are the impacts of cybersecurity incidents’ public consequences on the reputation and the stock value of Brazilian organizations? Through the analysis performed, we proposed an anatomy of incidents’ repercussions covering aspects like the main events observed in the timelines and peculiarities of every incident type. The stock share prices analysis did not allow us to infer a relationship between the disclosure of incidents and stock values. By assessing Twitter’s user-generated content, we observed that data breaches reverberate more than ransomware.