Pandemic has resulted in a spike in data breach costs, says IBM

Parv Kohli

July 29, 2021

According to Ponemon Institute's 'The Cost of a Data Breach Report,' sponsored and analyzed by IBM security, data-breach expenses have increased over 10% in the last year. The research considers various costs linked to Data Breaches, including legal, operations of technology, customer loss, brand worth, and a lot more aspects. The report analyzes real-world breaches faced by over 500 organizations. IBM mentions that the costs of some organizations were significantly higher as they lagged in areas like security, artificial intelligence and automation, zero trusts, and cloud security. During the Pandemic, various organizations were forced to establish 'work from home', leading to higher use of cloud-based operations. Remote operations resulted in more costly data breaches. Prashant Bhatkal, Security Software Sales Leader of IBM Technology Sales, India/South Asia, mentioned that India faced a record number of data breaches. Businesses increased focus and resources towards their security and preparedness for such attacks. According to IBM's report, the average duration to detect a data breach grew from 230 to 239 days, but the average duration to control the breach reduced from 83 to 81 days. Industries in the healthcare, retail, and consumer manufacturer fields have witnessed a drastic increase in data breaches. Till now, the most expensive healthcare breaches cost 9.23 million USD per event. Stolen user credentials were the most common causes of breaches and customer data was the most common data exposed in breaches. The use of technology like security analytics, encryption, and intelligence has proven to minimize the cost of breaches, proving to be a worthy investment.

Abridged fromAnalytics Insight