Cost of data breach down 10% globally, says study

Singapore

WITH cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated, the threat of a data breach has become the new normal for businesses. Over the past few years, security specialists have been saying that while it may not be possible to make a network foolproof, robust response systems and processes can mitigate the financial loss from cyberattacks.

Now, there is empirical evidence that this is indeed the case. The highly regarded Ponemon Institute and IBM Security have released the annual 2017 Cost of a Data Breach report which shows that globally, the total cost of a data breach fell 10 per cent to US$3.62 million from the 2016 figure (US$4 million). Globally, the average cost per lost or stolen record (or data) stood at US$141. In the Asean region, the average total cost of a data breach was S$3.18 million and 40 per cent of the data breaches involved malicious or criminal attacks. The average cost per incident in the region was S$156.