The Average Cost Per Data Breach Hits $4 Million

If you've ever questioned why your business needs to take advantage of network security, consider this: the average cost of data breaches, worldwide, has increased by 29 percent since 2013. The average cost per data breach is now an astounding $4 million! Can your business afford to deal with a data breach or data loss disaster?

These latest numbers come from a study performed by the Poneman Institute and IBM Data in which 283 companies from all over the world were examined. The results may be quite shocking, especially for a small business that may never have experienced a data breach. Here are some of the highlights from the study:

• The United States leads in terms of sheer overall cost of breaches by record value. The value per record is $223 on average. In total, the average cost of a data breach in the United States was roughly $7.01 million.
• Particular industries, like healthcare, education, and finance, have a higher value per record at $355, $246, and $221 respectively.
• 48 percent of all data breaches were the result of malicious intent, like hacking attacks and network infiltrations.
• Encryption and other security protocol decrease the costs of data breaches by up to $16/record.
• How quickly a company responded to the security breach had a positive impact on the overall cost of the breach.
• There’s a 26 percent chance that an enterprise will be hit by one or more data breaches of over 10,000 records within the next two years.

A data breach has far more repercussions than just the strain on your budget. It can lead to a damaged reputation, as well as lost clients and revenue. Can you afford to lose clients and revenue, and more importantly, can you recover data that’s lost or stolen due to your negligence? It’s estimated that businesses that fail to recover their data following a breach, will go out of business within one year following the incident.

The cost associated with data breaches by category:

Data theft due to malicious intent
$236 per record. This is data considered lost or stolen due to a hacking attack, like ransomware or a network virus. Really, the sky’s the limit for data theft in this category; there are so many threats out there that it’s basically impossible to individually prepare for each one.

Data loss due to hardware failure
$213 per record. This is data that’s lost due to system malfunctions or hardware failure, like a server or workstation crashing unexpectedly. Unlike hacking attacks, this is something that you can prepare for, by taking proper care of your technology and keeping an eye out for warning signs.

Data loss due to human error
$197 per record. This is data lost when your users do something accidentally, like move a file or expose credentials to hackers. This is a bit more difficult to protect from, as you’re relying on your end users knowing what they’re doing. Be sure to educate them on best practices, and ensure that they only have access to data that they absolutely need for their position.

Is your business prepared to handle the many situations that could lead to expensive and costly data breaches? If you’re not sure, reach out to SMART Services. We offer several solutions that are designed to protect your business from all manners of threats, including proactive security solutions (firewall, antivirus, spam-blocking, content-filtering), backup and disaster recovery, and user access control. To get started, all you need to do is call 586 258-0650 .

Let Smart Services position your agency for tomorrow’s technological challenges. For 25 years, Smart Services has helped agencies across the U.S. face a changing environment by providing innovative technology solutions that allow agencies to focus on growing their business. MyAgency Cloud, our complete cloud solution, covers all your technology needs in the cloud or at your agency. In today’s competitive environment, it’s time to make your agency technology a strategic asset, instead of a liability. Let us show you how. To learn more, please call our expert agency technology advisor at 586-258-0650.