Global data breach costs reached an all-time high.

Global data breach expenses have reached an all-time high, according to IBM's annual Cost of a Data Breach Report. Between March 2023 and February 2024, the digital giant worked with the Ponemon Institute to investigate more than 600 corporate breaches.

The breaches affected 17 industries, 16 nations and regions, and resulted in the loss of 2,000-113,000 records per breach. Here is what researchers discovered...

Essential information
The average global cost of a data breach is $4.88 million, up nearly 10% from $4.5 million last year. Key causes of the year-over-year cost increase included post-breach third-party fees and lost business.

Over half of the firms polled claimed they are passing on the breach costs to customers by raising pricing for goods and services.

Key findings:

• For the 14th year in a row, the US has the highest average data breach cost in the world, at roughly $9.4 million.
  
  
• Average breach expenses in Canada and Japan fell over the last year.
  
  
• Most breaches may be traced back to one of two things: stolen credentials or a phishing email.
  
  
• Seventy percent of firms reported that breaches caused "significant" or "very significant" levels of disruption.

Deep-dive insights: AI

The report also found that an increasing percentage of firms are using artificial intelligence and automation to prevent intrusions. Nearly two-thirds of firms have implemented AI and automation technology in security operations centers.

AI preventive procedures lowered the average breach cost by $2.2 million. Organizations without AI preventive workflows did not see significant cost savings.

Currently, just 20% of enterprises report employing Gen AI security technologies. However, those who have implemented them report a net positive benefit. According to the report, GenAI security products can reduce the average breach cost by more than $167,000.

Deep-dive insights: Cloud

Multi-environment cloud breaches were shown to cost more than $5 million to deal with on average. They took the longest to find and contain of any breach kind, demonstrating the difficulty of identifying and securing data.

Personal identifying information (PII) and intellectual property (IP) were among the most typically stolen data types in cloud hacks.

As generative AI projects incorporate this data into new programs and processes, cyber security professionals should reassess the appropriate security and access rules.

The role of staffing issues

A lot of firms dealing with cyber threats were discovered to have understaffed cyber security teams. Staffing shortages are up 26% over last year.

Organizations with cyber security staff shortages incurred an additional $1.76 million in breach expenses as compared to organizations with low or no staffing concerns.

Staffing constraints may be driving the greater usage of AI and automation, which have been demonstrated to lower breach costs.

Source: CyberTalk.org

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