Data breaches can affect every industry. However, cybercriminals will target specific industries based on maximum impact and profit. This means that understanding the likely risk profile to a given industry and be of benefit, especially when this comes with added granularity as to the probable attack mode.
New research has revealed the top 10 industries losing the most money to data breaches (a league table that no one wants to top). This comes from the firm Proxyrack, which has assessed countries and industries losing the most money to data breaches.
In addition, the research considers the countries most commonly targeted by data breaches as well as the effect remote working has had on the cost of data breaches.
The top 10 industries losing the most money to data breaches
| Rank | Industry | Average Data Breach Cost |
| 1 | Healthcare | $9,230,000 |
| 2 | Financial | $5,720,000 |
| 3 | Pharmaceuticals | $5,040,000 |
| 4 | Technology | $4,880,000 |
| 5 | Energy | $4,650,000 |
| 5 | Services | $4,650,000 |
| 7 | Industrial | $4,240,000 |
| 8 | Entertainment | $3,800,000 |
| 9 | Education | $3,790,000 |
| 10 | Transportation | $3,750,000 |
From the table it can be seen that healthcare has been named the industry losing the most money to data breaches with an average cost nearly $4 billion higher than any other industry. Healthcare data breaches have been steadily increasing over the past five years and this sector is particularly vulnerable to attack.
The three industry sectors where most data breaches are recorded are healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing (specifically the pharmaceutical sector).
In terms of geography the data suggests that the U.S. is the most commonly targeted country in the world by data breaches with over seven million breaches per million people. France followed in second, with South Sudan in third.
Furthermore, in total the U.S. has had over 2.4 billion data breaches, with 30 million happening in 2022 and 452 million occurring in the last three years.
Another troubling finding for the U.S. economy is that the US has the highest data breach cost in the world, with an average cost of $9.05 million. The Middle East followed in second with an average cost of $6.93 million, with Canada third.
Such data breaches are costly. The average data breach cost for companies with 81 percent to 100 percent of remote employees was over $5.5 million, whereas companies with 61 percent to 80 percent of remote employees had an average data breach cost of just under $4.4 million.
