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What is the cost of a Data Breach?
Introduction
Data Breaches are something that every organisation in every industry of every country faces regularly. A data breach is not something an organisation can escape from completely. Still, they can be better prepared to handle a security breach with some precautions and significantly reduce their data breach cost.
What is a data breach?
A data breach in layman terms is data theft, where sensitive and protected information is stolen and accessed without authorisation. The cost of a data breach can be damaging to any organisation in a variety of ways. It will also harm your company’s reputation, which can take years to build back again.
News of huge security breaches has become quite common in today’s world. This should not be all that surprising considering the advancement in technology.
With such technological growth, especially during the pandemic where more and more of our information is becoming digital, data threats and thefts are bound to increase. Thereby increasing the importance of data breach services to any organisation.
Average cost of a Data Breach
According to an article published by The Hindu about the recent research conducted by IBM and the ponemon institute, the cost of data breach in 2020 averages up to $3.86 million. The report also shows that while this amount is less than the cost of data a breach in 2019 which was $3.92 million. There is still a 10% rise over the last five years.
Data breach costs comprises direct and indirect costs to your organisation, which includes your time and effort spent on resolving legal issues, regulatory fines, loss of customers, value, and reputation.
The report also shows that out of the 17 countries and regions that were studied, 12 countries showed an increase in their average cost of data breach. Out of them, the United States had the highest cost of data breach in the world, averaging up to $8.64 million, up from $8.19 million last year. Followed by the Middle East at $6.52 million, an increase from $5.97 million last year.
It was also seen that the Healthcare industry has been the number one for the highest cost of data breaches for 10 years in a row averaging up to $7.13 million, up 10% from last year followed closely by the energy sector.
How can you reduce you Data breach cost?
A data breach in simple words, is cyber-security theft. An effective way to prevent data thefts and reduce your cost of data breaches is to have a proper Data Governance strategy in place.
Data Governance is the process of managing, protecting, and utilising an organisation’s data effectively and efficiently. Which will help your organisation protect its data from all threats and prevent any misuse of it.
Here are some ways to reduce your cost of security breaches and protect your organisation against cyber-crimes.
First step is to accept that no amount of security measures can a 100% protect your organisation from data breaches. Especially with the progress in technology, there will always be ways for your data to end up being misused or stolen.
The next step is to build an effective data governance strategy to protect your data while keeping in mind the above-mentioned point. It is also particularly important to educate your employees about it, which will in turn help you enforce it efficiently.
Another important security measure is identifying vulnerable points and threats in your network and regularly conducting security audits to keep it updated.
Creating an effective disaster recovery plan is a crucial step in reducing the cost of a data breach.
Conclusion
Now more than ever due to the ongoing pandemic, which has increased the threat of a data breach. Your organisation needs to take necessary precautions against security breaches because a prepared organisation will incur lesser costs compared to an unprepared organisation.
