Data breach costs extend far beyond immediate remediation.
Direct costs
- Forensic investigation and incident response.
- Legal fees and regulatory fines.
- Customer notification and credit monitoring.
- Public relations and crisis management.
- System remediation and security improvements.
Indirect costs
- Lost business and customer churn.
- Reputation damage and brand impact.
- Stock price decline (for public companies).
- Increased insurance premiums.
- Executive and board time.
Industry benchmarks (IBM 2024)
- Average breach: $4.88 million.
- Healthcare: $11.05 million.
- Financial services: $6.08 million.
- Per-record cost: $165 average.
Cost reduction factors
- IR plan and testing: -$1.5M average.
- AI and automation: -$2.2M average.
- DevSecOps: -$1.7M average.
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