The 2018 Cost of a Data Breach Study: Global Overview, in its 13th year, reported that the global average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, up 6.4 per cent from last year. The average cost, globally, for “each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information” is also up from last year, landing at $148 — a 4.8 per cent increase from last year. Data breaches are also only getting bigger; the average size of breaches, based on the companies that were surveyed, increased by 2.2 per cent year over year.
When broken down by country, some fare much, much better than others. The US had an average data breach cost of $7.91 million, while Brazil had an average data breach cost of $1.24 million.
Bloomberg compiled the average cost of a data breach for 12 countries into an infographic, the US leading by far.
The study also found that South Africa, at 43 per cent, “has the highest probability of experiencing a data breach,” while Germany, at 14.3 per cent, “has the lowest probability of having a future data breach.” The two factors used to determine this measurement were: “the size of the data breach reported in this year’s research” and “where the organization is located.”
Another interesting measure the study took was the mean time it took companies in the study to identify a data breach, and the mean time it took companies in the study to contain a data breach: 197 days and 69 days, respectively. On top of that, “companies that contained a breach in less than 30 days saved over $1 million vs. those that took more than 30 days to resolve.” This solidifying the common thought that containing a breach quickly will save money.
Oftentimes cybersecurity solutions providers use that reasoning to sell their services. According to this study, they have a point.
“The average cost of a breach for organizations that fully deploy security automation is $2.88 million,” reads the study. Without such automation, the study’s estimated cost is $4.43 million.
