New research from IBM and Ponemon Institute provides insights from the experiences of 604 organizations and 3,556 cybersecurity and business leaders hit by a breach.
The global average cost of a data breach in 2024—a 10% increase over last year and the highest total ever. The average cost of a data breach jumped to $4.88 million from $4.45 million in 2023, a 10% spike.
Other highlights from the study included
Significant Impact of AI and Automation: Organizations that extensively implemented security AI and automation saved an average of $2.22 million in breach costs compared to those that did not use these technologies.
Prevalence of Shadow Data: One-third of breaches involved shadow data—data that exists outside the known security perimeters—highlighting the challenges in tracking and securing all data assets.
Hybrid Cloud Benefits: Organizations using hybrid cloud environments experienced lower average breach costs ($3.8 million) compared to those using public ($5.02 million) or private cloud ($4.24 million) solutions.
Extended Time to Identify and Contain Breaches: Organizations that had not fully implemented cloud security practices took an average of 108 days longer to identify and contain breaches.
High Costs for Healthcare: The healthcare industry saw the highest average breach costs among all sectors, with an increase to $10.1 million, marking the first time this figure hit double digits.
Persistent Ransomware Threat: Ransomware continued to be a significant issue, with victims paying ransoms experiencing only marginally lower breach costs—$610,000 less on average—compared to those who did not pay, not including the ransom itself.
Lack of Security Staffing: Sixty-two percent of organizations reported insufficient security staffing, leading to an average of $550,000 higher costs per breach.
Impact of Zero Trust Strategies: Organizations adopting zero trust strategies experienced significantly lower breach costs, especially in critical infrastructure sectors.
Phishing as a Major Threat: Phishing remained a prominent and costly cause of data breaches, second only to compromised credentials.
These findings emphasize the importance of adopting comprehensive security measures, conducting annual security risk assessment, ongoing company-wide cybersecurity awareness training, incident response planning, penetration and vulnerability testing, continuous monitoring, and robust cloud security practices to mitigate the financial impact of data breaches.
See the IBM Ponemon 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report here and to download the full report. At Clarus Tech Partners, we have expertise in cybersecurity, data protection, risk management, data privacy, and regulatory compliance to address your cybersecurity risks and compliance requirements in the U.S., Europe, and globally. Schedule a consultation call by calling or emailing our team.
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