The WSJ reports that a new Ponemon Institute found that the cost of a breach was up 2.7% during 2008 to $202 per compromised record. The average expense to an organization was $6.6 million in direct and indirect costs, which includes the cost of notifying victims and maintaining information hot lines as well as legal, investigative and administrative expenses.
Report Highlights:
- Industries with the highest number of breaches: Health care and financial services
- Most common causes of breaches: negligence, third-party providers, and portable devices including laptops
The survey examined costs incurred by 43 organizations in 17 industries after a data breach and included breaches of between 4,200 records and more than 113,000.