According to a study conducted for IBM by Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach has drastically increased. Ponemon conducted 1,500 interviews in over 383 victim organizations, for 16 different industries, within 12 countries.

It was discovered that the average total cost of a breach is $4 million, which has increased by 29% since 2013. In Canada, that number has increased to $6 million, up 12.5% from 2014.

This $4 million cost, breaks down to about $158 per record. However, this can range significantly depending on the industry.
Health care organizations average cost per record: $355
Retail Industry average cost per record: $172
Transportation companies average cost per record: $129

Internationally 48% of breaches were due to malicious attacks. In Canada, the numbers break

down for breaches were:

• 54% from malicious or criminal attacks
• 25% caused by human error
• 21% due to system glitches

“Cybersecurity incidents continue to grow in both volume and sophistication, with 64% more security incidents reported in 2015 than in 2014.”
– Amanda Carl, Corporate Communications Officer for IBM

With this severe increase to security incidents, it’s not so surprising that the likelihood of a breach occurring in a year is 26%

It’s also interesting to note that on average it took a company 5 months to detect a breach, and 2 months to contain the incident.

With all of these numbers out there increasing on what seems like a daily basis, it’s still shocking to note that most companies do not properly invest in Information Security.  According to the study, 59% of the total cost of a breach is due to responsive activities like forensics, legal fees, all communications and regulatory directives.  The study also found that companies that had business continuity processes found breaches 2 months early and contained the breach 1 month faster.

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Images sourced from IBM Security: http://www-03.ibm.com/security/infographics/data-breach/