"Our study results suggest that merely mentioning trade secrets can attract hackers' attention," said lead author Michael Ettredge, a University of Kansas accounting professor. "Managers of companies should be allowed to assess the benefits and costs of trade secret disclosure. Both voluntary and mandatory disclosures can have unintended and undesirable results, as well as beneficial results."

Another recent study found that when data breaches do happen, their average cost to the company can run into the millions. The average cost globally is about $3.86 million; for U.S. companies in particular, that cost is $7.91 million. The study also found that the mean time it took for companies to identify a data breach was 197 days, and the mean time it took for them to contain the breach was 69 days. If a company took fewer than 30 days to address a breach, though, the study found that the average cost of the breach was $1 million less.