BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- It seems like there's a new data breach every few weeks--Equifax, Uber, Yahoo.
Those breaches were the subject of a panel at Prince Lobel Law Firm Thursday, featuring current and former FBI agents.
Those agents said stealing information is an industry, with Russia and China at the top of it.
Prince Lobel's Peter Caruso told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal that companies and consumers must be vigilant.
"If you become that company--it could be Equifax, it could be Yahoo--who is out there having a breach, that is out there affecting your reputation," Caruso said. "In this socially-active world, that could kill your business."
Companies are legally obligated to be prepared--and experts on the panel said they could do things like updating software and backing up hard drives.
Don Ulsch, a senior consultant with Charles River Associates in New York, explained that what happens in the C suite affects you.
"A technology may have been acquired by a nation-state that reduces the revenue or impacts the reputation of a company," he said. "Maybe people get laid off, maybe the company gets acquired. So there are some very hard-hitting facts that can happen that can affect you as an individual, and that's what people need to know."
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports