The average cost of a data breach rose to $4 million from $3.8 million in 2015, according to the 2016 Cost of Data Breach Study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM. As has been the case in all past editions of the report, the cost of data breaches continues to climb year-over-year. As the overall costs of data breaches have risen, so too has the cost for each lost or stolen record. In 2016, across all verticals on a global basis, each lost or stolen record cost $158, up from $154 in 2015. That said, the cost of a data breach and the value of lost or stolen records is not uniform and depends on multiple factors. For example, organizations that have incident-response teams can lower the cost per lost record by $16. Additionally, the report found that breaches that were the result of malicious or criminal attacks were more expensive than the overall average, costing organizations $170 per stolen record. akes a look at key highlights of the 2016 Cost of Data Breach Study.
- eWeek