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Probability of data breaches increases

While more and bigger breaches are expected, companies are getting better at managing them

The average probability that an organization will experience a data breach has increased to 27.7 percent compared with last year’s 25.6 percent, according to a Ponemon Institute and IBM Security global survey. The report shows an increase in the size of breaches but a reduction in the cost to business and the time it takes breaches to be identified and contained.

The probability of a breach varies by location, with South Africa, India and Brazil most likely to experience a data breach involving 10,000 or more records over the next 24 months. However, costs associated with data breaches also vary widely between countries; average detection and escalation costs for breaches in Canada over the past year reached US$1.46 million, while in Brazil they reached just US$ 430,000.

While the size of breaches worldwide rose by 1.8 percent, average costs fell. The average total cost of data breaches across the 419 companies participating in the survey was US$ 3.6 While more and bigger breaches are expected, companies are getting better at managing them.

The average probability that an organization will experience a data breach has increased to 27.7 percent compared with last year’s 25.6 percent, according to a Ponemon Institute and IBM Security global survey. The report shows an increase in the size of breaches but a reduction in the cost to 2 million in this year’s report compared with US$ 4 million last year.

The report suggests that overall reduced costs can be linked to the time it takes for breaches to be identified and contained. The average time for identification reduced by 10 days compared with last year and containment times reduced by four days. Study authors attribute these improvements to investment in security analytics, security information and event management software, enterprise-wide encryption and threat-intelligence sharing platforms.

Cost and complexity increased according to the type of breach, with malicious attacks costing significantly more than breaches caused by glitches, human error or negligence. Overall, malicious attacks by hackers or criminal insiders caused 47 percent of all breaches, with a high number targeting businesses in the U.S. and Middle East.

Read the full report: 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study

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