According to a study by IBM, the cost of data breaches has risen to an average of €4.44 million, with the main reason for the increase being the disruptive impact and loss of activity following a breach.

According to IBM’s annual Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach is now €4.44 million as breaches become more severe and disruptive. That’s a 10 percent increase from last year and the largest annual increase since the pandemic.

According to the report, this increase is due to a shortage of security personnel. In addition, the research shows that 40 percent of data breaches affected data stored in multiple environments. In contrast, companies that use AI and automation for their security appear to have a significant advantage.

Lack of security personnel

IBM’s report shows that a severe shortage of security staff is a major cause of the increased costs. For organizations with severe staff shortages, the cost of a data breach rose to €5.22 million, compared to €3.62 million for organizations without staff shortages. The shortage of security staff is exacerbated by the rapid implementation of generative AI technologies, which introduce new security risks.

More and more companies are increasing their security budgets to address these issues, focusing on employee training, incident response plans and purchasing new security technologies.

AI and automation

Organizations that use AI and automation for security appear to be reaping significant benefits. According to the report, 67 percent of companies now use AI and automation, an increase of nearly 10 percent year-over-year. Such technologies help detect and contain breaches faster, reducing the average data breach lifecycle globally to 258 days, the lowest in seven years.

Increasing internal detection also contributes to shorter breach cycles. In 42 percent of cases, the breach was detected by the company’s own security tools, resulting in savings of almost 910,000 euros.

Unsafe data

The research also shows that 40 percent of data breaches affected data stored in multiple environments, such as the public cloud, private cloud and on-premises. These gaps in data transparency have led to a 27 percent increase in intellectual property theft. The cost per stolen record increased by almost 11 percent to €157.45.

Many organizations report that the costs of data breaches are passed on to consumers, which can lead to higher prices for goods and services.